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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023.0919.TCRM.MinutesTOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE FOUNTAIN HILLS TOWN COUNCIL SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 A Regular Meeting of the Fountain Hills Town Council was convened at 16705 E. Avenue of the Fountains in open and public session at 5:35 p.m. Members Present: Mayor Ginny Dickey: Vice Mayor Sharron Grzybowski; Councilmember Gerry Friedel; Councilmember Peggy McMahon; Councilmember Brenda J. Kalivianakis; Councilmember Hannah Toth; Councilmember Allen Skillicorn Staff Present: Interim Town Manager Rachael Goodwin; Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson; Town Clerk Linda Mendenhall Audience: Approximately Fifty-one members of the public were present. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING Post -Production File Town of Fountain Hills Town Council Meeting September 19, 2023 Transcription Provided By: eScribers, LLC Transcription is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. Page 1 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MAYOR DICKEY: Good evening, everyone. Welcome. Please stand for the pledge, and if you'd like, please remain standing for the invocation. ALL: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Pastor Jeff Teeples, from the Shepherd of the Hills. Hello. How are you. TEEPLES: Well, good evening, everyone. And I just wanted to make kind of a plug before I start. We're having the Arizona or the Attorney General's Office from Arizona is coming to our church to give a presentation on human trafficking this Thursday night at 6:30. So if that's of interest, you're all invited to come. So I thank you for allowing me to be here tonight and give this invocation. And invocation is invoking or calling on God to give inspiration or wisdom. And that's a good thought as you begin your council meeting tonight as we meet as a community. I want you to -- I'm a faith person, and so we talk a lot about faith. Tonight I want you to think about faith as trust. And if you think about right now you all just stood up, and there was a chair that was holding you, and if you were to see that chair somewhere else, you'd probably likely say oh, that's a good chair. I could sit in that. It would hold me up. Well, that's trust. That's trust in that something beyond what you can see, because of experience, it will actually hold you up. But in order to really put your faith in that and your trust in that, you actually need to sit in the chair. Faith is described as trust and God invites us to trust Him. This is from Psalm 62: "Yes, my soul find rest in God. My hope comes from Him. Truly He is my rock and my salvation, He's my fortress. I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God. He is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust Him at all times, you people. Pour out your hearts to him for God is our refuge". The Psalm speaks about God being a place of rest, a source of hope, a solid foundation, a rock, a fortress, a refuge. And the psalm encourages you and me to trust God at all times. Page 2 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING So for the invocation I call on God to be our place of rest, a source of hope, a solid foundation, a rock, a fortress, and a refuge. Would you please pray with me. Lord God, thank you for our community of Fountain Hills. Thank you for our town council. Thank you for their decisions and the decisions that will be made or need to be made to make our town be the best possible place to live. I thank you for our elected leaders. I thank you for our schools. 1 thank you for our community leaders and our firemen and police force as well. So Lord, we give you thanks tonight and thank you that we can depend on you as God of rest, refuge, of rock and fortress, a foundation for our lives and our community. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. MAYOR DICKEY: Next we have our roll call? Linda? MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Here MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Present. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Present. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Present. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Here. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Here. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: Here. MENDENHALL: Anyone wishing to address the council regarding items listed on the agenda or under call to the public, should fill out a request to comment card located in the back of the council chambers and hand it to the town clerk prior to consideration of that agenda item. Page 3 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING When your name is called, please approach the podium, speak into the microphone, and state your name for the public record. Please limit your comments to three minutes. It is the policy of the mayor and council to not comment on items brought forth under call to the public. However, staff can be directed to report back to the council at a future date or to schedule items raised for a future council agenda. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. We're going to start off with some comments from our attorney regarding tonight's agenda and then we'll move on to activities. ARNSON: Thank you, Mayor and council. On the agenda tonight, you'll see what appears currently as agenda item 9A, on the regular agenda: "Consideration and possible action for a vote of support for the school district bond election". That item will not be considered tonight. We want to avoid any appearance, whether real or perceived, about use of town resources as part of an election. That being said, any comment cards that were received in support or opposition to this item, the names will be read during the call to the public portion. Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you, Aaron. We'II start, as always, but I'm going to go in this direction first and ask Councilman Skillicorn for his report. SKILLICORN: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Actually, today I had an opportunity to go with the economic director Jacobs to check out the McDowell Adventures, which was a good time with also the Chamber of Commerce. And one thing I also want to point out, last week I had an opportunity to meet with legislators. I was able to sit down with Senator Hoffman and Senator Wadsack, Representative Heap and Representative Parker and talk about next year's legislative agenda and some strategy there. So that's all I have for tonight and thank you very much. Page 4 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Councilwoman? KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Hi everybody. Good evening. Thank you, again, for coming and joining us for your town council meeting. It's very appreciated. And look at the size of this room, amazing. Also thank you to the people who are tuning in online and on VouTube and on Cox Channel 11. But before I give me report, I'd just like to address an item from two weeks ago which is when I put the invocation back on to a future agenda item, which would have been tonight. After I did that, I sent some case law to our town attorney and to our town manager and also some guidance from other municipalities throughout the country. Due to the complex nature of those correspondence, and due to the confusion last week, and to complicated matters of rules of procedure, I thought that it might be best for us to discuss that in executive session, which we did today. So this will not be appearing on the agenda tonight. And I just want to let everybody know that I was the one who is responsible for that. So if you like it, you can thank me and if you don't, you can blame me. But again, as far as our town council meetings are concerned, this seems like one of the questions I get from people is, well, it's all kind of complicated and confusing. How do we keep up that are at home or in the audience? And just so everybody knows there is an agenda packet that is listed on our town website. It's on the front page, you go to agendas and then go to today's date. Everything that we'll discuss tonight was on the agenda. Somebody addressed me and said you guys have all the inside stuff and the stuff that the public doesn't see and so we have an disadvantage. That is not true. Everything that we discuss here tonight is on the agenda package, and you have availability to take a look at. And so what we discuss here tonight in chambers is something that we've seen this week, it was agendized, we've read it, and were here to discuss it tonight. And if you want to be as informed as we are, or as little informed as we are, that is available for you on our website. Okay? A couple of things that I've done in the past couple of weeks. Our streets and safety , ., ... _._.,.„_......,.�....,.. u_.-..,.-.- Pa .............................e..o.v.119 Page 5 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING committee had met again. The streets and safety committee is currently composed of the Mayor, our Councilwoman McMahon, and our town staff. And we address all the correspondence that we receive from the public, from you. As far as you think the stoplight should be there. There's too much speeding here. There's too much noise there. This doesn't go off into the ether and get ignored. We meet regularly. We discuss all this business. We do the traffic studies and which is to determine what is safe for Fountain Hills. And so I just want you to know that these things are looked at and addressed by the town council and the volunteers. We also had our Fountain Hills Cares planning meeting which is really important and that's next month we're going to have the meeting to protect our, basically, elderly from frauds, scams, and phishing. And so that's going to be on October 19th. I suggest everybody goes to know what the scammers are planning or if you have any family members or elderly, your parents or anybody else, have them come too. Because it's going to be really informative. We're going to have the Attorney General's Office there, somebody from the FBI, from Chase Bank, Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, and so it's going to be a very good meeting, very informational, and it might just save you a lot of money. And so I would encourage everybody to come to that. And lastly, this week on Thursday, as part of the Leadership Academy, I'm an alumni, we're conducting the know your government section. And we'll be here in this very chamber with this year's Leadership Academy to take our future leaders and teach them how to be more aware of what's going on in the town. And like I said, I appreciate out town staff, Rachael, for setting that up. And the Mayor, of course, the Mayor is going to be speaking and it's a wonderful thing. 5o that's going to be on our town agenda for Thursday. So anyway, that's all I have tonight. Thanks again for coming. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilman? FRIEDEL: Thanks, Mayor. Just a couple of quick things. I did attend the Leadership kickoff last week. So that was very good to see all the new participants and hear a little bit about each one of them. So that was very informative. Page 6 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILTS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING And just a little public service announcement, Guardian First Responders is in the process of collecting donations for the blue tree down on the Avenue to go along with our Christmas decorations. So if you don't know how to get a hold of them and you're around here at the end of the meeting, I have a card that I can give you if you're interested. And otherwise you can look them up. They have a Facebook page as well. So that's Guardian First Responders and they're collecting for our blue tree for first responders. Thank you. GRZYBOWSKI: I'd like to remind you guys about two upcoming events next month. The first one is Move in the Park on October 14th, which is at the Four Peaks Park. And the second is Make a Difference Day, which is Saturday the 21st. We have plenty of clients, so we're not looking for any more houses to do work on. But we still looking for volunteers. If you'd like to sign up, all of our registration is online now. So you go out to the town's website, click residents, and then look for the Make a Difference Day under the volunteering area. Then, today is my favorite day of the month, it's Stellar Student Day. That is always exciting for me because it's a whole new group of people coming to visit us that don't generally come to visit. And I don't know if the Mayor has learned to just deal with the fact that I say this every month. But what I'm going to tell you is, mom and dad are going to want to leave after it's over. But it's okay to stay because in sort of a nerdy way it's kind of cool to sit down and watch your town in action and see the people come up and speak at call to public and see how we interact with each other. You never know, you may find yourself with blue hair on the council dais one day. Thank you. TOTH: I have no report. Thank you, Mayor. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. GOODWIN: That's all right. I will bring it home. And I actually have a couple of quick updates. I wanted to mention we were all there for the Leadership academy reception. It was very welcoming. It was great to welcome Page 7 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING the seventh class. Then we are going to be hosting Get to Know your Government Day on Thursday, so we are looking forward to that. We're going to take a broad dive into our town, our roles, the operations, and our services that we provide. Quick reminder to a lot of our park users. Temperatures are finally beginning to simmer down a little bit. Yay. But what that means is we're going to be kicking off, or we actually already started our overseeding process. Both Fountain Park and the Avenue Linear Park are being prepped right now. Reminder that that can be a little bit dusty as they begin scalping the summer grass and as the winter grass is installed it takes quite a bit of daytime irrigation to get that seed to germinate. So just a reminder that if you are a walker in our parks, it may be a great time to discover one of our other parks where we have walking loops and that won't be impacted by the overseeding effort. Also a quick reminder that our town clerk is taking applications right now for all of our commissions. So if you're interested in serving in a volunteer role, our commissions are a great way to do that. She'll be happy to answer any questions and get you pointed in the right direction. And lastly, I think I have the right audience here to remind everybody that tomorrow on the Avenue of the Fountains is our homecoming parade. So everyone's invited out tomorrow afternoon. I believe start time is around 6. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: 6:30. GOODWIN: 6:30, thank you. Avenue will be closed for that. But everyone is invited to come out and celebrate. So we will see you there. MAYOR DICKEY: All right. And we have our ballet coming too on the 28th, Ballet in the Park. I would miss if you didn't say that at every Stellar Student Month. GRZYBOWSKI: Thank you, ma'am. MAYOR DICKEY: East Valley Mayor's meeting that we have every quarter. This time it was at Salt River, Maricopa Pima -- Pima-Maricopa County Indian Community and it was at Wolf Lodge. I've never been there before, so that was great. We talked about public safety and water issues. mawcwarute Page 8 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING Economic development, they have a lot of enterprises there. GPEC, which is Greater Phoenix Economic Council, mayors and supervisor quarterly. So it was a time for all the quarterly meetings. The kickoff there for the -- I got to speak to class 7 and they're very impressive and I can't wait to see what they come up with next time. And I see Dori here. So thank you. It was a really, really great kickoff. We had a tour of EVIT. I know I saw the superintendent here, Dr. J. There were principals there, parents, and others. It was organized by our dedicated residents Fred Bedell and Carl Ivarsson. We toured the incredible facilities they have there. If you haven't had a chance to see it, you'll be wowed. Our kids have access to it, of course, we're part of the 11 districts. They had a lunch at what they call Bistro 13, which is prepared and operated by all the students. And by the way, guys back there, they offer half-price on their already low prices for first responders. So go in there, they had great fries. And it's not that far. We are fortunate, like I say, to be part of those 11 districts because for a very small amount we're a part of this -- we used to call them JTEZ, which are joint technical education districts and now they're career and technical education. So its very awesome. Last, before we go to the proclamations, I want to mention that MAG, the Maricopa Association of Government's executive director, Ed Zuercher, who used to be the city manager in the City of Phoenix, named our own Fountain Hills' Audra Koester Thomas as the chief of staff. And Audra started there in 2015 to facilitate long-range transportation planning. She works tirelessly. She's so smart. She helped us years ago here when we went -- when the town council was going through some issues that we needed her support and she has played a key role in working and passing Momentum 2050. So I just wanted to make sure I congratulated Audra and we'll be seeing her. She's made presentations here before. Now, Vice Mayor, we do our stellar students. So just let me explain a little bit. Because I do the Stellar Students, I read about each child up here, each student. And then Page 9 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING Angela will hand them their certificates. Then I'll come down and we'll take a picture. And while I'm down there, I'm going to stay because we're doing constitution Week proclamation to Viree over there and then we're going to do the Hispanic Heritage Month with my friend down there. So I'll take those with me and bear with me while we go through this. We're going to start with the Stellar Students and we always start with McDowell Mountain. The first is Peyton Jochens. I'm sorry. I want to say that right. Peyton, did I say that right? JOCHENS: Jochens. MAYOR DICKEY: All right. Jochen. Yay Peyton. Come on up. Go right over there to Angela and then please stay up here. So let me tell you about Peyton. Peyton is a perfect example of a Stellar Student. Not only does he always do his very best on his academic school work but he's extremely polite and considerate of others. Peyton is the first one to step in and help whenever and wherever he can. Peyton takes on and conquers every challenge in STEM class and has an amazing attitude. He's very capable And excels at whatever we're working on. But what impresses me, this is the teacher, the most is the way he looks out for others and demonstrates the Falcon way. So hurray for Peyton. Our next student from McDowell is Szebasztian Labbancz -- Oh, you got to stay up here. You don't get away that easy. Szebasztian is -- is Szebasztian here? Hey, here he comes. Szebasztian Labbancz. Szebasztian is always a stellar student in my STEM classroom and in his regular classroom and in the whole school for that matter. He's such an incredibly hard worker and does his best at all times. He's an amazing friend to others and is the first one to offer help to a friend or a classmate whenever it's needed. Szebasztian is so bright and creative that no matter how hard I try to stump him or challenge him in class, he always has one more thing to add that I never even thought of. I can't wait to watch and see how his future unfolds and amazing things he will accomplish. That's Szebasztian from McDowell Mountain. Page 10 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING Now we get to move on to the middle school and we have Marliana Hernandez. Is Marliana here? Oh. Well, I will read about Marliana. Marliana comes into the math classroom quietly and ready to work every day. She's the first one in, gets ready immediately to start the class period. We're currently working on taking notes and her notebook is one that other students should model. She's neat, organized, and extremely detailed. Marliana's work ethic contributes to making her a Stellar Student. So that's Marliana from the middle school. Hopefully they're watching. I see. Do we only have one for the middle school? No. Let me just make sure before I go on here. Ah, here we go. Caden Plumb. Is Caden here? Hey, hi Caden. Sorry. Caden is a very hard working student. He comes into class daily, ready to work. He helps others if needed and is always ready with a smile. In math, Caden takes beautiful notes and keeps his work organized. Caden's hard work and dedication makes him stand out as a Stellar Student. Another middle school kid, Caden. Now, high school. So Kaitlin Wathogoma, she couldn't be here tonight, but I'm going to read about her from the high school. Kaitlin is a young lady who exemplifies what it means to be a great student. She arrives with a smile on her face, ready to work each and every day. Kaitlin always participates, does her best and never with a complaint. She's a kind, caring person who treats everyone around her with respect. Her love of all things -- and this one gets to me -- Disney and Dan Fogelberg, which I thought was really interesting are infectious. Kaitlin has the ability to brighten the day of everyone she encounters. For those reasons I believe she is the perfect candidate for Stellar Student award. So give it for Kaitlin. And our last student from the high school is Grayson Pavia. Is Grayson here? Hey, there you go. This is from the teacher of course. I am choosing Grayson Pavia for this award because he always exemplifies kindness. He's an uplifting presence in our classroom and encourages others to do their best. His positivity is infectious and he truly embodies the Falcon way. And that's Grayson right there. Are you ready? All right, there they are. Stellar Students. Hey. Page 11 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING Okay. Our first proclamation is for Constitution Week and the reason it came up -- you know what? Yes. You're going to come up from the DAR right? So come on up and let me give this to you and you hold it and I'll read the words. And then you can say a few words, okay? Is that good? BYRNE: Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: All right. "Whereas, the Constitution of the United States of America, the guardian of our liberties, embodies the principles of limited government in a republic dedicated to rule by law; and "Whereas, September 17, 2023, marks the 2036th anniversary of the framing of the Constitution of the United States of America by the Constitutional Convention; and "Whereas, it is fitting and proper to accord official recognition to this magnificent document and its memorable anniversary; and to the patriotic celebrations which will commemorate it; and "Whereas, public law 915 guarantees the issuing of a proclamation each year by the President of the United States of America designating September 17th through the 23rd, as Constitution Week. "So, therefore, I Ginny Dickey by virtue of the authority vested in me as Mayor, do proclaim the week of September 17 through 23rd as Constitution Week and ask our citizens to reaffirm the ideals of the framers of the Constitution that they had in 1787 by vigilantly protecting the freedoms guaranteed to us through this guardian of our liberties." Thank you so much. And would you like to say a few words? There you go. BYRNE: I just want to thank you Mayor Dickie, for once again helping us to honor Constitution Week by reading the proclamation. And I also wanted to make a quick shoutout to Dr. Jay, because he wanted a copy of the Constitution for every classroom and I'm proud to say that our Four Peaks chapter helped make that happen this year. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. And she's a Regent from the Four Peaks chapter, I forgot to say that earlier. Page 12 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING Our next proclamation is the National Hispanic Heritage Month. So come on up here, Mr. Melendez. Former council person, council to El Salvador. All kinds of accolades and honor. So I will read this and ask you if you'd like to say a few words, okay? MELENDEZ: Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: So "Whereas, each year, the United States observes National Hispanic Heritage Month by celebrating the culture, heritage, and countless contributions of those whose ancestors were indigenous to North America, as well as those who came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America". I'm going to have you do that because I have it in big writing here. "Whereas, what began in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Johnson was expanded by President Reagan in 1988 to cover a 30-day period starting on September 15th and ending on October 15th; and "Whereas, this year's theme: 'Latinos: Driving Prosperity, Power, and Progress in America', invites us to celebrate Hispanic Heritage by recognizing the significant strides of Hispanics in the economical, political, and social growth of the United States and encourages us to reflect on all the contributions Hispanics have made in the past and will continue to make in the future; and "Whereas, many Hispanics serve as government employees/public servants, civil rights leaders, and community organizers, politicians, soldiers, educators, journalists, first responders, pioneers in art and science, health care professionals, athletes, inventors, entertainers, and so much more; and "Whereas, Hispanics continue their rich history of significant and diverse contributions to the cultural, educational, economic, and political vitality of our town, our county, and our state". So now, therefore, the Town of Fountain Hills Arizona proclaims September 15th through October 15th, 2023, Hispanic Heritage Month and encourages all residents to honor the rich diversity of the Hispanic community and celebrate the many ways they contribute to our nation and society. Let's give him a hand. Page 13 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MELENDEZ: Thank you, Mayor Dickie, Vice Mayor Grzybowski, councilmembers, town manager, and staff. I sure I've met some of you. I'm here as a 34 year resident of Fountain Hills, who served in this town council from 20 years ago; 23 years ago. And I'm acting tonight as the ambassador of the Diplomatic Corps of Arizona, an organization comprised of 40 nations and I'd like to take this moment of diplomatic privilege to introduce two of our consuls. Consul of the Netherlands, Mr. Siva Benkersee (ph.). And the consul of Norway, there he is. Thank you, Mayor. You know, I accept this with great humility and pride because I represent 2.7 million Hispanics who live in the State of Arizona, and 19 percent in the country of the United States of America, the greatest country in the world. I want to talk about a specific person who was a Mexican immigrant who came here, became a citizen, fought for our country, as a great boxer. He went to NAU, got his degree. Then he came down to University of Arizona where he earned his law degree. He was the only Hispanic governor that the State of Arizona has had. I met him. I worked with him in my home country of El Salvador. He was a real deal. He performed gallantly. He was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to be the ambassador of my home country of El Salvador and I want to salute him. He dedicated his life to Arizona. He took no prisoners. He was burned and he brought civility to this state. So with that, I accept this and I'd like to tell the story of why I'm here today. Today, 40 years ago, I was in my office in Los Angeles and my secretary said to me, sir, the White House is on the line. And I said to her, Michelle (ph.), please I'm in a big meeting, don't bother me. So she closed the door and she knocked again about two minutes afterwards. And she said, sir, the White House insists they talk to you. So I picked up the phone and a voice came, by the name Ed Meese who was called Chief of Staff for President Reagan and he said, you've been selected in honor to be decorated at the Oval Office with 19 other Hispanic leaders. And I said, why me? And he said because of what you've done through their foundation, the ARCO Foundation. He was very generous with me. I worked with the Speaker of the House, in those days Willie Page 14 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING Brown and then, the assembly member of that L. A. District, Maxine Waters, who's in Congress now and we put together the Martin Luther King Museum, Chicanos por la Causa and we worked very, very diligently with the support of Oracle, my company, to build the Hispanic community and the indigenous people of the State of California and Arizona. So I feel today is a privilege to accept, as this day as you can see in the picture there is a day that I got decorated in the Oval Office by President Reagan. I was the last one, including Cesar Chavez, who was an activist and a great leader for the Hispanic community in California. So I was the last one and then the President said, oh, the secret service says you got four minutes. And there were two of them and sit down don't extend your hand to the President unless he does it. So I was very nervous. I was 44 years old. And here comes President Reagan. He not only extended his hand, but he grabbed my arm and told me sit down. Well, I spent nine minutes with him and the secret service were going like this. And the last fellow on the right is -- out of the 20 of us, only three of us are alive. Col. Zapanta was a Green Beret colonel, silver star hero in Vietnam. And he just left as mayor of the City of Irving, Texas. So I always kidded him. I said, you know, Al, the reason you didn't get killed in Vietnam is because you were too small and the bullets flew over you. But anyway, that's what I like to do. And then I like to take a personal privilege to address the council. Councilmembers, I served in the dais behind you. I don't come often to speak. I served with four mayors, great people. I did the eulogies for all four of them and I was very proud to do that because their families asked me. However, I want to say something to you that may be a little harsh. You may not like it. But nevertheless, I'm known for telling it the way it is. The way that the council has acted in the past is disrespectful to the community, disrespectful to the council. I don't come to your meetings, but I heard there's a lack of civility. And then you have the audience who stand up and scream and yell. You know, all we did when I was in the council member, I called the sheriff and we escorted those people Page 15 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING out. So I'm asking you politely and respectfully, show some leadership. Show some word that ends with the word respect and keep doing what you're doing. Serve us. Thank you, Mayor. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. We do. We definitely do that. Thank you very much. Our next item is our presentation and we are going to start with the presentation from the school district superintendent, Dr. Cain Jagodzinski. And then we'll do one on water management and conservation efforts. So welcome Superintendent and thank you for coming. JAGODZINSKI: Well, Mayor and members of the council and guests. Thanks for having me. Tonight I'm here. I was asked to come speak a little bit about just where we're at as a district. A little kind of a state of where the district's at and I'm here to do so. So I'll take any questions you have afterward. As you can see first off, we've had a lot of change and it started with our logo. So we've had a lot of change and we're very excited about our new Falcon. It graces our new field which I'll talk about here in a little bit. But it's kind of a new branding for us and the kids and the community have been very excited about that. So thank you for having me. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Dr. 1, superintendent of the district. I've lived in town here for 20 years. Served as the basketball coach, teacher, principal, and I have three kids in the district myself. All three are in high school. And time flies. So it goes fast. First of all, what I want to kind of talk about first of all is just how proud I am of my staff. One of the things that was really important when I came onboard a year ago was retention of staff. We had great retention when I was principal, when we did our A -Plus school of excellence application in 2019/2020 school year, we were at about 97 percent retention rate at the high school. And were really proud of that because that's where you get growth. Is you have to have the same people coming back and building upon, being one percent better every day and continuing that growth. And the couple of years I was gone, I was gone for two years from '20 to '22 we did Page 16 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING have a lot of turnover. And it was something that needed to be addressed right away and I'm happy to share that this past year we had 90 percent of our employees come back for this school year and that's great. Because that is where we get out growth. I also want to share that we have 118 of our employees live in our community. Which is amazing. And I was thinking about like that number seems high. And I started walking around, I'm like lives here, lives here, lives here. And I've been here for a long time and I know the people. So we're proud of that. And we have 12 alumni who now work for the school district as well, coming back to serve their community. Which is awesome. We've worked really hard on retention and this is our staff picnic we did earlier in the year. The Rotary and the Kiwanis group came together to make this happen, with other sponsors in town that came forward. So it cost us nothing but it's now an annual tradition. And it was kind of to cap off just a really good year of bringing things, old traditions back the way we do things. We had a volleyball tournament, we had great food prepared for us, which was awesome. We had shirts donated and it capped off with a volleyball tournament which was really too. We had six teams and next year were thinking it will grow even further. So I think that's a lot of the reason why we've had some retention is we've tried to really work hard on making this the best place to work. Also, we are starting a senior internship program this year. This is something that I've wanted to do for a while and who better than to go to the person who gets more things done in town than Betsy LaVoie. I sit with her on the Chamber of Commerce Board and I called her up and said what do you think? And she just ran with it. Which is awesome. And we got the Verne C. Johnson Foundation, long time donor, Dwight Johnson's family decided to put some money towards this and we're able to hire somebody through the Chamber to help Principal Hardman and the team do that. So this year, we have roughly 145 seniors that are going to be out in our community doing an internship. Some are doing it through EVIT and some are doing it through the Chamber of Commerce. So we're really excited. This is our first year. But the hope is that we're planting seeds for the future for more of our students to come back and live Page 17 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING here, raise a family, and hopefully work in our community, start a business. Which is great. You can see our partnerships that we work really hard with. These are the groups that really come together and make things happen for us. So we're very proud of our relationship with our community. Working hard on that every day. So as a district, as you know, we consolidated aver the summer and it was a lot of work. But in the end we now have our four campuses basically. We have Little Falcons Preschool. McDowell Mountain has moved over to the old middle school. Fountain Hills Middle School returned to the old old middle school and Fountain Hills High School has remained in the same spot. So the feedback I received from my student advisory board, from students that I speak to, I walk the campuses daily, and the feedback I've got from the kids is they really like the changes. They're really excited about what we're doing with, especially, the middle school. They like having a six to eight middle school and not being kind of elementary/middle school. They really like the six/eight model. We created a portrait of a graduate this year doing lots of feedback from our parents, our students, our staff and we basically are saying to our families that coming through Fountain Hills School District, you're going to walk out with these six skills that we believe are 21st century skills. They're going to help you to be successful in whatever career you want to go in, whether it's starting your own business, working for a corporation, and even just in your own life as a family; these are things that you need to have. 5o we narrowed this down from a list, down to leadership, critical thinking, communication, responsibility, being self- and goal -directed, and problem -solving. But then weaved through this are some of the other ones that are really important that just didn't, maybe, make the top six and you can see some of those in there and one of them in there that was real close to the top was fiscal responsibility. And that was great. And so we put that in there as well. And this culminates now, after years and years of working on these skills, this will culminate with that senior internship where they go out and actually use these skills to make connections and be successful in their internship. So I'm going to run through some of the changes in each school. Page 18 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING Little Falcons Preschool, had tremendous growth over the summer. We continue to get new students as they become of age. So right now a lot of what we're getting are three- year -olds that are two turning three. We have a list of kids that are waiting for their birthday to get started and we have one of the most experienced veteran caring staff in the state and I'm very proud of their work. One of our teachers has been there for 32 years, working in our school. Which is amazing. This is a partnership with the PTO. This is kind of the messy room area of the preschool and they made it into a town square and you can see they have little covering over the windows. They have little street signs. A little park type of thing. They even have clouds up in their to imagine a little bit and this is done through, again, our really strong partnership with our community. Throughout this past year, between donations, we're getting about 600,000 on donations, plus you throw in a couple of grants that we were able to get this year and we're getting close to about a million dollars in the past year that we're able to save by working through those different partnerships. And I also want to thank our town manager because she shared one with me, the tourism grant. Which ended up leading to us getting a new gym floor at the middle school. So we're always looking for help and we're always looking for opportunities to help our community. So Little Falcons, this is Ms. Matus' room and like I said, she's been there for 32 years. It's such an awesome place. If you ever need a little pick me up, go to our Little Falcons Preschool, it will make your life a lot better I promise. They have a new playground coming here next month and we're going to be revising the grass area out there as well. So some additional features coming to Little Falcons. McDowell Mountain has moved to the old middle school campus which was built in 2002. And it is -- we put most of our savings money into this site. And we believe it's turned out really, really well. We still have some things that are coming in. But this is our outdoor classroom space and you can see the kids, they love the chairs. They love being outside. This is earlier in the year with a little break at recess. But now that the weather's getting better, teachers will be able to take their kids outside and white Page 19 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING boards and things like that they have available to them that they can go outside and do that. You can see how clean and pristine it looks after a lot of paint. That's how it turned out, but it turned out great. Now, all these bulletin boards are filled, all the hallways just look amazing. It still has a lot of potential, the school, and the work we did this summer has really helped. The elementary classrooms are bright. The teachers are extremely happy. They were a little nervous about moving because they don't throw anything away. But now that they went through years and years of stored materials they are happy. And if you're a teacher in the room you're probably laughing because you know that's true. I was the same way as a teacher. I never threw anything away. But the classrooms are bright. They have lots of desert landscapes they can see out from and the skylights make it even brighter and make it beautiful. 5o we're very happy. This is our new library that's coming. They'll be starting, I believe, next week with preliminary construction. And I just want to point out there's been some confusion on the planetarium. The planetarium was donated completely by two donors. The Peter and Theresa Conti Foundation donated $75,000 to the project and the PTO donated another 30, which covers the $105,000 for that project. So again, these donors in town, a lot of them I've known for a long time and they really believe in what we're trying to do and they want to see our kids have some things that really set us apart. So the library will be when it's all completed, I believe it will be the nicest library out there and it will attract a lot of families and students to it. And we'll have lots of family engagement nights as we get that completed. Next month we'll have the start of our playgrounds coming in and you can see this aerial shot of where they're going in the courtyard. We'II have two originally that will be installed to start with and then we will build from there. But this will be the safest location on campus for our kids to play and it's right next to the cafeteria, right next to the gym, and right next to the outdoor classroom space. So there are four bathrooms right there in the area for the kids when they're outside playing. Page 20 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING Fountain Hills Middle School has moved back to its original location and we're very happy with the outcome of that. All this painting was done in combination. The hallways originally, we had some original work done on those and then we had our big community paint day and a lot of you were here and we appreciate that. And that helped us a lot by getting those classrooms done. And then we had a local parent, Heather Atkins, come in and paint here and here to give these accent walls. Plus she did all the trim down the hallways. And it is absolutely amazing what she was able to do. Todd Harris, who was the president of the Rotary at the time and is now still giving lot of ideas although he's no longer president. But he's still out there. He's been painting nonstop since the summer. He's still there painting. I'm not kidding you. He's still there. He did every trim of every door. He did all the handles. He has been non-stop on this project and has been fantastic. All the volunteer work that we've had to get this done. So the new middle school, the kids love it. We added a new honors and gifted program. I thought that was something that was missing from our curriculum and I think that's one of the reasons we lost students in the past is not having that high-level program. So we have Innovate 21 and we took amazing teachers we had in the district and we put them in a -- it's a self-contained class for three periods a day. So they have the same teachers for English, social studies, and science. And they work collaboratively doing project -based work and at a high, high level to connect history and English and science in their projects and what they're learning. They go out for math but because a lot of them are really high level students, they're all the same kids in their math class again. But then they go out for two electives. And those electives now change every trimester so that they get a lot of different opportunities for electives. We also have virtual reality at the high school and middle school. And this is something I did as principal back in 2019, and we're rebooting that system, those programs and getting them backup and running and it's one of the few schools in the country that has a full Occulus Rift lab. Not just the portable ones. We have the full technology here to be able to do field trips, to be able to do science, to be able to do all kinds of STEM and Page 21 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING different types of opportunity. So this will be -- half of them will be at the middle school library and the other will be in the high school library. So they'll have both schools will hve an opportunity to do that. Our PTO also donated a multi -ball interactive -- this one's a little bit more of a play. There is some educational benefits to it. But this is to give our kids something to do at lunch and some of the downtime. And this was donated by our PTO and it is up and running. These are not our kids. This is from their website. But it works just like this. They have a lot of fun with this and we did something similar at the elementary school. But the elementary school one, and I've only played the multi -ball a few times but really the idea behind this was to give the kids really something to do at lunch and in those down times. At the elementary school, the one we put in their has some play stuff like that as well, but it also has math facts and spelling and different types of educational games. So both of them can do education and some fun. And then lastly, high school. Probably one of the things I'm most proud of ever in my educational career is finding a way to get this done and we got it done and I'm so thankful to our community for coming together to do this. We ended up getting about 400 -- and again, im just giving estimates. About $470,000 in donations between the field and the scoreboard. And you can see the new scoreboard that's now up. Digital four -foot falcon at the top. It's pretty awesome what we've been able to do and the district's contribution was originally around 100,000 but then, because they were late and I went all the way to the senior vice president of the company, I got another $45,000 discount for them being late. So yeah. Thank you. Lastly, with the high school. We have some signature programs there that I believe helped drive our enrolment, help keep our kids. So we have AVID, which is a career -- sorry, a college prep program to help students who maybe have never had that opportunity. Never thought that college was an option for them, to get those extra skills and those -- all the things that they need to be prepared to on to college, then be successful. There's a high, high number of students who fail out their first year or ..�..,. ,�...... ..... .. �-. w,..,....a.,.......M,�.,......om.,�... Page 22 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING college and AVID is put into place to help kids be prepared so that they can meet those demands and meet those needs and be prepared for them. I was the first in my family to ever go to college. Knowing my family it was not important. It was not something you were supposed to do. I chose to go a different path and it was hard. My parents didn't understand how hard college can be and didn't think I'd make it and ended up with a nine-year degree. So you just never know. But this program is really, I think, it's an important one. Our football coach, Pete Schermerhorn is now teaching that. He has 30 years of experience and from what I know of the program, what I've seen, he's done a great job building that back up. AP Capstone is one of our signature programs. It's the highest level of academic programing that we have. Seniors and juniors who take this program, it's a two-year study over those two years. They will go through a lot of college writing. They have to be able to cite at a high level, they have to defend their arguments, they have to do a full year research project, a thesis paper and they have to have that approved by the school. It goes through the IRB process, just like a doctorate dissertation does. We had partnered with ASU when I brought this program in. The kids who have finished that have had amazing results. And are off doing amazing things. AP Capstone culminates with -- you have to have six AP classes, you have to pass all six exams, and then you have to write the paper, defend it to faculty, and if you do all that, you get our highest distinction diploma and you get one from the college board which looks great on a application or resume for university. And then lastly, EVIT. I'm an EVIT parent. My son's in the fire signs program, year 2. And he is one that has never liked school and it's been hard for my wife, being a principal and me being a superintendent, but EVIT has changed his life and saved his life. I can honestly say that. He loves going to school. He has learned respect. He's learned the way of the firefighter. He has learned that he better have one good meal he can cook or he's out. That was really important to them. I'm joking. But they did say that at the parent night. But he's learning about seniority and respect and those types of things that are so Page 23 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING important and there's nothing I can be more proud of as a parent if he becomes a first responder. So I'm very hopeful he does that. He says he is. He loves it and that's going to be his future. So EVIT, as the Mayor shared, we did a tour. I was blown away. Just again, I see it every year but even in the last year they added a million dollar manikin in their health room that actually talks, tells you what's wrong, and actually gives birth. So that -- I was blown away by this. To help for the maternity ward students. And gets them ready for real -world life stuff. I was completely born away by it. It was next level. So with our projects at the high school, we've shifted all of our attention to the high school now. And we have our new gym hallway bathrooms are coming so if you come to a game you're going to see an upgraded bathroom there very soon. Long, long, long overdue. But those are coming in the next week or so. We're going to be doing hallway paint. We're going to be starting that over October break. We have the weight room. We had a donor here in town who's been working to help with the weight room. So we have the weight room being revised again. Small gym floor replacement is coming. And we're finalizing the library as we speak right now. And it is going to serve as a media center and our new Esports arena because we joined the AIA Sports. So now you can win a state title for being really good at video games and we will have that team this year and Coach Keating, former student and used to come to my basketball camps when he was in first grade. He is now running the Esports program. So with that, that's where we're at and I'll take cany questions you have. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you, Dr. J. Any comments or questions from the council? Yes, ma'am? MCMAHON: Thank you, Dr. J. That was really a great presentation. And I was at the ribbon cutting for the Falcon Field and it was amazing. It was an amazing achievement raised with private funds. And it really is nice to know that our student athletes are playing on a safe field. JAGODZINSKI: Well, I'm going to tell you. I went down for the first practice and they were literally rolling on the grass and jumping on it. And they were like in elementary Page 24 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING school. It brought tears to my eyes. And having a senior on the team, it was awesome to see. So thank you. MCMAHON: Thank you. Also with your history with the town, and as superintendent, I have a couple of comments or questions to make that you can address. JAGODZINSKI: Sure. MCMAHON: Do you think or believe that our excellent schools are one of the most important factors in a successful community? JAGODZINSKI: I do. And I want to say that up until really the pandemic, we had two of the highest rated schools in the state. Fountain Hills High School was 2018 of all comprehensive public high schools, and I'm talking about the high schools that take everybody who walks in the door. We were number twain the state, number four in 19. We got our letter grades, we got our A -plus. Our elementary school is getting results based funding from Governor Ducey's program that rewarded the highest ranked schools in the state. And so those things were going well. And now, we've had a setback with the pandemic. We've had a setback with turnover. We've had a little setback with leadership. And we're trying to build that back. And I think that the numbers that I saw out of our high school last year, they grew in every category of the ACT last year. Ninth graders had 17 percent growth on the ACT Spire. So I'm pretty confident that we will get it back where it was. And I believe that that leads to a thriving community. I always said the school should be the center of our community for sure. MCMAHON: Thank you. JAGODZINSKI: Yep. MCMAHON: And in that regard, do you think Fountain Hills Unified School District plays an integral role in the strength and vitality of the town and its families and enhances the business community, especially since it's the largest employer in town? JAGODZINSKI: I do. And I started with that just showing how many -- how proud we are of being able to offer employment to so many people in our community. And when you work in your community, there's also a sense of pride right? When you hire back Page 25 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING alumni, there are people who want their community to be successful, it helps. I can tell you I love being close to home. It's nice. The commute is great. It's like 30 seconds. But I can tell you that overall, yes, I believe that having our presence as employer in town is -- with 118 people in town, I think makes an impact on our community. I think the internship, you're going to see -- MCMAHON: Yeah. JAGODZINSKI: -- I want our community to see our high school seniors. See how nice and kind and awesome they are to our community. So yes. MCMAHON: And your presentation to me also demonstrated that the district supports and improves the welfare of our families and children with their education and our schools of excellence. And I do think that what you're doing is attracting more families with school children to move into our communities. So thank you. And also, with the Stellar Students, I enjoyed that partnership. And I always sit up here and watch the kids come up and they're so excited with their parents. And I wanted to ask you what positive impact do you receive from the families of the kids who serve on the Mayor's teen council and also the parents of the Stellar Students that are recognized? JAGODZINSKI: Well, I try to get here as much as I can for Stellar Students. MCMAHON: Right. JAGODZINSKI: I was a part of it when the Mayor brought it and I thought it was a great idea. I usually meet them out in the lobby and talk to them and they're so proud, the parents, obviously. I mean, it's great when you get a positive phone call home and I try to tell our teachers that all the time, call home with positive things. There's nothing better a parent gets than your kid did something awesome. Because we tend to only call when it's bad, right? MCMAHON: Right. JAGODZINSKI: And so were trying to change that idea -- MCMAHON: Right. JAGODZINSKI: -- of let's get a call when we're home. Yes, but I think the kids do feel Page 26 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING supported and like I said, I have an advisory board myself. Student voice is really important to me and we take their feedback and we really run with it. That's why we have a swim team. I'll tell you that came out of advisory board. MCMAHON: Wow. JAGODZINSKI: And I made them present to the board. The board approved it and now we have a thriving swim team. So that's just one of many examples of their ability to make change as students. Yes. MCMAHON: Well, thank you. And I appreciate that this particular recognition shows that we, as a town, are interconnected with the Fountain Hills Unified School District. And have a strong interest in the support of our children's welfare and excellent education. So again, I would like to thank you and thank you for reaching out to the Chamber to cement that partnership. And for your input in showing that the school district and the Town of Fountain Hills is intertwined for the betterment of our community and serves all the same constituents in accord with our town current and future objectives for our community. And again, thank you very much for all of your contributions. JAGODZINSKI: Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. JAGODZINSKI: Any other questions? MAYOR DICKEY: I'm sorry? JAGODZINSKI: Any other questions? GRZVBOWSKI: I actually don't have questions. MAYOR DICKEY: Go head, vice mayor. GRZVBOWSKI: First of all, how do I get the Stellar Students to stay? Every month I try. These people are tired of hearing me try every month. JAGODZINSKI: I brought the ice cream truck afterward. GRZYBOWSKI: All right. We'll work on that. I did want to say that I talk to a lot of parents that are so excited that you're here. The comments that I get about the system, about the classes, just all comments are so Page 27 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING positive in the past couple of years since you've been back, I just -- I cannot tell you how much we appreciate having you being here because everybody loves it. Also I kind of feel like my parents looked at my school and went well, you've got a really cool school. So I know I'm going to sound really old when I say this, but wow, you have a really cool school. And I just challenged a Councilwoman Toth to come to the school and play the ballgame and do you like hit the fish or something? JAGODZINSKI: I heard she's a good softball player, though. GRZYBOWSKI: Yeah, I know. She is. JAGODZINSKI: She might -- yeah. GRZYBOWSKI: So I'm just taken back how cool it is now and the projects that you're looking at doing and I kind of feel like I want to call my parents and go, you don't know anything about a cool school. JAGODZINSKI: Well, I appreciate it. It's my team. My team has done a great job. I'm very blessed to have such a great team. And they all came back, which helps a lot because I didn't have to go find anybody this summer for administration. So it's a work in progress and we do appreciate that. You know last year I invited all of you to come visit and I'm going to do that. That's a annual thing, so you'll be getting an invite soon to come back. And we had a good visit when you guys came last time and I'll show you around the campus and I'll probably wait until at least the playgrounds are in because I think you're going to want to see how great that is for the kids. But thank you. Vep. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you very much. 5o I have a kind of -- well, first of all, this is homecoming week, right? JAGODZINSKI: Yeah. The parade's tomorrow. Football game is Gilbert Christian this Friday. MAYOR DICKEY: The home game? JAGODZINSKI: Thursday. Sorry, yes. I've been hearing about that from my son all week. I should know that. Thursday. And then we have the dance on Saturday. MAYOR DICKEY: Nice. Well, you know I have a 1998 graduate, a 2002 graduate, and a 2007 graduate who you taught -- Page 28 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING JAGODZINSKI: Yeah. MAYOR DICKEY: -- social studies to. JAGODZINSKI: Yeah. MAYOR DICKEY: And just an interesting benefit to my family from this school district is that the one that graduated in'98, so he's 42. The other one is going to be 40 this month. And then, Frank just turned 35. JAGODZINSKI: That's impossible because I'm only 30. So -- I'm kidding. MAYOR DICKEY: Wow. JAGODZINSKI: I'm kidding. I'm getting old. MAYOR DICKEY: But when they were all at Four Peaks School -- JAGODZINSKI: Yeah. MAYOR DICKEY: And Joanne Meehan was the principal and Michael skipped second grade which put him in Jessie's (ph.) class. And now he teaches at Syracuse. He's a professor. He has his Ph.D. from Wharton and I have three grandchildren because she let him skip second grade, so I'm very, very -- a big fan of Fountain Hills district. JAGODZINSKI: Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: So we talked about what the town has to do with the schools and I'm actually a member of the statewide Mayor's educational roundtable which is exactly devoted to that concept. And again, I'm a 40-year resident and former school board member and volunteering for decades. And so I understand how schools and communities are inextricably linked as Peggy had said. I had a resident say when we were talking about the role of the schools and say it's really impossible to articulate the many ways that we are connected in our community and with the school. So I decided to take that on as a challenge. So I'm going to mention some of the ways that we are very linked, not only just the whole community but the town council and the more mundane things about what we share. So first of all, we share the same -- this is not mundane --same constituency, same families, same taxpayers. We have our Maricopa County Service Department contract with the town, which include school resource officers which had for years. So when I was on the school Page 29 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING board we would ask the town to fund them and now in this way it's a pleasure to do that. Security and fire protection, the way the buildings are, they affect our officers that are there and all, obviously, who enter. Fountain Hills District is the largest single employer, we talked about that and now 118 of those live in Fountain Hills. Education is a major economic driver, we talk about that at GPEC all the time. Not only because we have daily transactional impacts but obviously it affects our property values and an attractor, as you said, for residents, particularly new families with school -aged kids. This districts maintains and operates a large fleet of vehicles. So there's busses, vans, cars, all housed in Fountain Hills, generating economic activity. Student success is measured in many ways. You talked about having A -plus schools. We have graduates that go on to two- and four-year universities. We have graduates that achieve military status and gain technical skills through EVIT as we talked about that and then they can enter the workforce and make very healthy salaries right off the bat. The district is one of the largest property owners in the community with eight locations. Nearly 500,000 square feet of buildings under roof and nearly as much with fields and playgrounds. And we have intergovernmental agreements with the school district that benefit all of our taxpayers because we share these resources and the facilities inside and out. If you think about it, schools are the largest gathering places, probably by far of our Fountain Hills residents and neighbors five days a week, 40 weeks a year, 1,200 kids but that doesn't even count extracurricular activities. You talked about the football games and all of those activities are entrusted to our police, our fire, our park staff. So again, a lot of interactivity. The schools partner with Fountain Hills sister cities. We have our sister cities commission. The student exchanges that enrich the lives and experiences for a lot of our nonprofits, our churches and our families in the community. My sister's there, she's had a lot of exchange students over the years. The town secured funding with ADOT and MAG for sidewalk infill and more and there's a program called Safe Routes to School. So obviously, the schools allow us to get those Page 30 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING grants and put that infrastructure in. We don't have a decision yet but we've been talking to the district about putting signage at the entrance to towns. You probably see that in other cities where they have like student athletes and such. The town partnered with the district to provide crosswalks. So we have crosswalks on Palisades Boulevard and on Fountain Hills Boulevard that was more recent. And when we did that, the schools went and distributed pamphlets that we had requested that regard bike safety, we noticed and the pedestrian and traffic safety committee, we talked about what side of the streets the bikes were supposed to be on and helmets and all that. And where you should drive and where you should walk. Town council meets jointly with the school board. Several of our council members attend school board meetings. I meet quarterly with Cain. I keep in touch with President Joe Reed, as I've done with her for many years. The town council serves as a conduit for Prop 202 funding that comes from Indian communities and goes to the schools and of course Fort McDowell kids come to our schools. And Stellar Students, no less than six leadership projects have to do with education. And again the internship which is an awesome program. So Stellar Students did come from class 2 of leadership. Tom, thank you. And partnering with and promoting excellent schools is a written part of our economic development plans, our strategic plan and our voter approved general plan. Clearly, we rely on each other for the community at large. Our students have gone on to contribute to the community, to the state, and to the county. Maybe one saved your life. Maybe a firefighter like someone I know. A police officer or a doctor. Every student in our public schools, whether there's 200, 1,200, or 12,000 deserves the opportunity to learn in a secure maintained environment with the tools and the instruction that's needed to succeed and thrive. So I want to thank you, Dr. J, and staff for supplying students with those opportunities and for preparing this informative presentation for us tonight. I really appreciate that. JAGODZINSKI: And we have alumni who set all this up for me tonight. I just want to throw that out to you. So -- MAYOR DICKEY: Well, thank you for that. Page 3101 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING JAGODZINSKI: -- he's in the back somewhere. MAYOR DICKEY: And I do see some teachers here. JAGODZINSKI: And I just want to close with, I'm just trying to fix our schools, make them the best they can be. And when I got the call to come back that was what it was about. We definitely had some rough times there and were fixing it and we've come a long way. And I mean, a long way in a year and I think the only reason we really get so much done in so much time is because of just the connection with the people that I know and the teachers, the staff, the community. It's helped us to accelerate what we're doing and I would just say to anyone who has a question or concern or feels like something's not right, just come talk with me. My office is literally -- I have an open-door policy. I take people in all the time. I'll call you. I'll meet with you. I'll take you on a tour. All we're trying to do is make this the best place we can make for our kids and that's what were here for. So with that, thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: One second. Do you -- SKILLICORN: yeah, Madam Mayor. Superintendent, I actually do want to applaud you. In the past couple of years I've seen such an improvement in morale and it's very obvious and just thank you very much for that. Couple of quick questions. What's the current enrollment? JAGODZINSKI: Last time I checked, 1,175. SKILLICORN: Okay. So it's gone up in the last couple of weeks? JAGODZINSKI: We had 11 new enrollments in the last two weeks. We typically will get -- I think we'll finish above last year, personally. I can't promise that but just looking at how things went last year, and the fact that we have kids coming into preschool still, and typically we pick up kids throughout the year; that's pretty normal for us. In fact, I'll give you a quick example. When the seniors were in sixth grade they had a 112 kids. Over the time from 6th grade to 12th grade we lost like, 70 of them through whatever reason. But we finished at 150 or 145. We're like at 145 right now. So we get a lot of kids throughout the year. The key to enrolment is keeping the ones we have. So Page 32 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING that's why, if someone is left and they haven't moved to another state, I call them, I talk to them, and I ask them, hey, what's going on? What can we do to be better? But we started the year at 1,205 last year. I think we'll — I, personally believe we'll surpass that by the end of the year. SKILLICORN: And what was enrollment this time last year? JAGODZINSKI: 1,205 to start. So I don't know on this exact date what it was but 1,205 to start. Yeah. SKILLICORN: Okay. Because when I look it up it was about five percent higher last year. JAGODZINSKI: It was -- the first day of school was 1,205. I've looked at -- I've used that number a million times and like I said, when we started the year, we had what is called ten-day drops. Kids who move and they don't tell us. And then after ten days they have to drop. So when that all occurred, then we hit about 1,175 and I, like I said, we're down -- we had 128 seniors leave. We had 55 kindergarteners come in, which is the same as last year. And we made up, of those 70, we made up around 45 of them already. So I think we'll make up the other 25 or 30 by the end of the year. SKILLICORN: Okay. Thank you. JAGODZINSKI: Yeah. No guarantees. I'm working hard. I mean, we'll see. But last year we started 1,205 and we had gains throughout the year. I think we ended at like 1,228 or something like that. So we'll keep working hard, okay. Any other questions? FRIEDEL: Just a couple of comments. JAGODZINSKI: Yeah. FRIEDEL: I was also at the ribbon cutting for the football field and it turned out fantastic. JAGODZINSKI: Thank you. FRIEDEL: So that's a great testimony to the district and the volunteers working together to get that done. And I've been to EVIT, that's fantastic too. But I do have one question. Todd Harris, does he paint homes too? JAGODZINSKI: He was afraid of putting people up that high. I mean, some of those halls .u...n..... -- „ —., ,.,,..,.... Page 33 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING are like 18 feet. But I will tell him he needs to get on that next. He can do the high school ones himself. I'm kidding. all right. Thank you all and thank you for all your work you do for our community. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you very much. JAGODZINSKI: If you need anything, just always reach out. Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Thanks for that very important question. We have another presentation and I've been asking for this for a while. So I really appreciate this. Rachael, did you want to intro it? GOODWIN: Sure. That would be great. Yes, absolutely. We've been talking about this for a while. It was a kind of a hot topic over the summer. Obviously, water is a concern and an ongoing concern for those us here in Arizona. It's a big topic. But this specifically is about our efforts on a day-to-day level, what we do to make sure we're using our water responsibly and making choices moving forward to continue that. So Bo is going to lead us through some of these efforts. LARSEN: Thank you, Ms. Goodwin. Mayor and council, thank you very much. I want to give you a nice brief overview of how we conserve water. Which I believe we are one of the first in the country to go through, start this recycling program but I'd also like to challenge that we're one of the best in how we do it because of our partnerships and our ability-- good start, though. There we go. So anyway, to give you an idea. Fountain Hills started with recycled water. That was our lake. It holds about a million gallons of water, recycled water, and each night 330,000 gallons are used for recycling throughout the town. To give you an example. Some of the areas that use recycled water are some of our golf courses; not all of them, but some of them. Including Sunridge, Fire Rock, and Eagle Mountain as well. But it started with the Fountain Hills sanitary district back in 1969. And now you can see that there's kind of an original shot of what the fountain was like when it launched back in the day. And sure water wasn't being recycled on the dirt yet at that point. But you can tell we were living in a desert and CBS News even came out in 1972 to ask why is a town like Fountain Hills with a fountain in the middle of the desert? Well, I'll show you Page 34 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING some pictures to show that it was all worth it. But the Fountain Hills sanitary district covers approximately 12,000 acres and you can see they have a large expansive area that they cover and they're prepared for. The Fountain Hills sanitary district recycles 100 percent of all the wastewater that we use in this town. And that's amazing. And that is totally due to the technology that they use. They started out with a pretty simple plant but as the town grew and as technology advanced, they kept up with it. And the residents wanted that and that's what they were saving. In fact, on the right hand -- maybe the left hand picture that you're seeing, the right hand picture that I'm seeing. That is one of the most state of the art filtering systems in the country and were really fortunate to have that here in town. The town itself, and this blows me away. 700 million gallons of wastewater we generate each year. I'm not sure what that means, I'm not going to read into that. But it means that we have a lot of water that we capture and it's highly treated and it is treated at such a level that's considered A -plus. Which, I'm not going to say drink it, but you could if you had to. So if you're out in the desert some place and you need water, you'll live for a while. All right? To give you an idea of some of the areas again that we recycle. We obviously recycle Fountain Park, Golden Eagle Park is classic example, including Desert Vista Park. I want to point out that Kevin snipes, that's his modeling finger; he's available after work. But one of the things that allows us to use water and manage it so smartly is the technology that the town's using. Besides the Fountain Hills sanitary district and all the technology they have, we also are bringing in incredible technology so we're not wasting water or overwatering as much as possible. One example is Kevin there is just programing in to turn on the fountain for that picture. Or turn on the sprinkler for that picture. That sprinkler as well is, if you notice, is not your typical back and forth like the old lawn type. It goers out in a circular motion so it hits the areas that need water and it hits it efficiently. So no water's being wasted. This is Joe down at the park. One of the things that allows us also to have a really strong watering system is the regular maintenance and replacement of irrigation. Some of Page 35 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING those irrigation systems have been around for a long time; since kind of the beginning of that park. They're getting rotated out and being updated. So that helps save water, help prevent leaks, and it's one of the things that is what Kevin and his team has worked diligently on and why our parks and ballfields are looking so much better all the time because of the work they're putting into it. To give you an idea also, we are in the process -- and maybe you've heard this of like Scottsdale, getting rid of front yards and stuff like that. We're in the process of removing grass in a few areas. And one of the reasons we do this because we may not have as much -- the ability to use recycled water in those areas, so it doesn't make sense to talk about our recycled water program when we're watering with potable water. The Fountain Hills Boulevard and Shea Boulevard isn't going to happen yet. It's waiting for a grant, according to Justin. But it is in the process and that's one of the goal is to replace that. And at Fountain Park, that big -- that dirt right there by the Splash Pad has always been an eyesore. But that is one of the areas designated through a CIP to build a patio and a better use area. But it also means removing about 8,000 square feet of irrigated grass. To give you an idea of some of the savings that this will create when it's all said and done just in these two areas: 1.9 million gallons of potable water will get down to about 167,000 gallons. And that's for the trees. We're not getting rid of all the trees. Some of the palm trees we may. But all the other trees are staying. The same as by the Splash Pad there. It saves almost a half million gallons of water, which is amazing. Also in our parks. The smart application of plants and how we plant things and irrigate things. You can see, making sure that we're targeting or using the best plants to meet the needs of the desert. I was talking to Justin about trees, and he's like, we water basically for the first two years, three years to make sure the trees are established. But after that, they may go down to nothing or they may go down to minimal because the trees is adapted to the desert and it's going to grow well. And so that's one of the things that the town is always looking out for: To make sure we have the right tree, in the right place, at the right time. Page 36 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING You can see where we do some of our watering and what I just mentioned about trees are not watered once established. But shrubs and plants are obviously irrigated to keep beautiful. We also encourage, and it's actually through one of our ordinances, encourage residents to the type of plants they use. Low water use plants as well as other plants to conserve water the best as possible and encourage people not to do things that would waste water in our town. Now the Rotary Splash Pad uses an awful lot of water. However, it's water that we capture and reuse. Now, this is not recycled water. I want mothers to know this out there. This is actually potable water that's recycled through the chlorination system. So it's perfectly good to use. It's probably cleaner than my pool, I'd say that. And I found this really kind of neat. If you know the Panorama storm drain project, it was just completed this past year. And one of the things that I found interesting is that we're able now to capture all the spring water that seeps into the pipes as well as other that just come up through the groundwater that the pipe is gathering. We're closing in on a billion gallons of water collected already to being pumped back into Fountain Lake, and that's good spring water. As well as the water that is -- you can see the pump there, the new pump. And that's going to be improved, so that number is going to go up substantially over the next year. I think, as I understand it, we're only about half of what it could do right now. But that's nearly 80 million gallons of water collected and put back into the Fountain Lake. That's a lot. And I did the math, 150 gallons a minute, so it adds up. What's also very cool that Justin set up, it's estimated that 200 / 300,000 gallons from that pump is put into those big water tanks for construction jobs and stuff. Construction teams have to, or we request, they use this water for mitigation of the dust. And I found that really cool and so we're using the water for many, many purposes and making sure that it gets the most value out of that water. The recycled as well as what were reclaiming out of the stream. Other areas where we do it. This is over the community center project that was just completed last year. Low water or no water uses as well. Which is modern technology Page 37 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING that's being used everywhere in new construction projects. I just want to thank our partners and the town wants to thank our partners, Fountain Hills sanitary district and EPCOR for all the work that they're doing. EPCOR has presented here before and they'll probably be back soon to talk about all the water that we have available for Fountain Hills. We're very fortunate that we have such a smart company we work with in EPCOR to give us that water. But we're also really blessed to have a Fountain Hills sanitary district who gets us, gets the needs of this town, and is achieving it. So again, I want to thank the Fountain Hills sanitary district for -- and Dana for all the content input and that's all I have. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. FRIEDEL: I don't know who this question will be better directed to. So we have all that water that we're pumping -- that spring water we're dumping that into the lake and then we're watering our trees and grass with that mixture of sodium water that is actually killing some of our vegetation around the lake. Why don't we take that water from that spring and pump that into a storage facility that we can take and water our trees with potable water? LARSEN: I know that's been -- Mayor and Councilmember Friedel, I know that's been discussed in previous conversations. And I'd like to invite Justin up if he wants, as I get the eye. But I think it's just a matter of the funding for that type of storage. WELDY: Thank you. Madam Mayor, Councilmember. That spring water pump or surface water pump that we use, simply does not generate enough water on a daily average to provide what is needed for Fountain Park. By putting it into Fountain Lake we are certainly offsetting and improving the quality of water there. And as we make improvements to it and we increase the volume by twice as much, we can certainly look at that. Kevin and I have discussed tying it into the system. It's a little bit challenging and requires some additional pumps, but we are certainly looking into it. FRIEDEL: Thank you. Thanks, Justin. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman? Page 38 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING TOTH: Speaking of the quality of water at Fountain Park, this seems like a really good moment for a PSA; if you don't mind, Mayor? The water softeners that a lot of us use, if you're using a sodium one, we don't have desal and the sanitary district, as wonderful as their facilities are, that is extremely expensive. And so if you're using the salt kind, please, please, please consider using the extra couple of dollars to switch to potassium to help the quality of water at our Fountain Park. That bald spot that we're covering up with the new project, that's from all the salt buildup at Fountain Park. So that brown spots you see in grass, any of that is coming from salt. So just a PSA. If you're using a water softener, please switch to potassium, it's good for our fountain, it's good for our town, it's good for our grass. You'll get me off your back too. LARSEN: Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman? KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Thank you for your presentation, Bo. Very thoughtful and really appreciate it. I'd like to support what Hannah just said because I was going to say the very same thing. Again, this is kind of a PSA but the soft water machines that we're using to soften our water in our homes, is slowly killing our lake. And that lake has got a lot of fish and wildlife that drinks out of there and we're literally poisoning one of our greatest assets and resources. And so I just want people to know that that the sodium, peroxide, or whatever, and the Kinetico's got nonsalt-based systems too, so I would recommend people use that. And then the other thing, in speaking of EPCOR, fortunately we hear a lot about water conservation and water problems throughout the state but Fountain Hills is in the capital of our state, we've got 1:OOyear water supply and we don't have any anticipated shortcomings in the future. I just want to let people know. LARSEN: Thank you, Madam Mayor and councilmember. Both councilmembers. That is the number one story I generally generate working with the Fountain Hills sanitary district that I put out in the Insider; talking about that issue specifically. Because my Page 39 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING numbers are going to be wrong here but I'll be close. What should be about 250 parts per million are over 600 parts per million of the salts, and it is slowly killing the lake, and it's just one of the issues. And that's one of the wonderful things about being able to pump so much water back into the lake as well. It helps stir it up a little bit more, get a little fresher water in there. It takes time. I mean, that's not a large firehose that's going in there, but it does make a difference. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. I want to thank you for putting this together and doing the article in the Insider because again, we do hear about it so much and with Rio Verde and all that was going on. So thank you for mentioning the SRP and the cap water and EPCOR, has really done a good job keeping us informed and they will come again. We have water that's stored. We have pay -per -storage, we have real water, we have wells; which is great for us. We don't ever want to stop being diligent though about being aware of what we use and I really think that we all keep that in mind. I think, vice mayor, you were, for a while on a subcommittee that was kind of looking at, with the sanitary district, with some of that sodium. Was there any progress? GRZYBOWSKI: I think the hope was that we could somehow magically afford to help people switch from the sodium to the potassium. But the money that would be involved to do it, the sanitary district doesn't have it and we don't have that kind of thing in our budget. So the big thing that we came up with was do everything we can -- sorry, Bo -- to communicate it as much as possible between the sanitary district and their I think, it's quarterly newsletters, and then our Insiders, and Bo's really good about putting it on social media. But unfortunately, and till, unless we have the funds behind helping -- whether it be Ace purchased in a bigger bulk kind of things, so it would be less expensive or helping our residents get some sort of certificate so that it's less expensive, it is hard to get the message out there. One of the things that wasn't mentioned by the two previous councilwomen is when we switch from salt to potassium, after I did my Leadership Academy and also went through the same thing you guys went through, you do actually change it -- or not change it. You Page 40 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING do actually, add to it less often than we did when it was salt. The sodium actually does dissipate faster than the potassium does. So it was less frequent. It cost you a little bit more money but it's less frequent and it truly is better for the environment. And I got to say, Kevin kicked butt when he came in and he spent a lot of time studying how can I overcome the salt that's in the water that I'm using to water the parks. I won't bore you with what he did. Let's just say he waters more to help push the salt to the side so that he can actually get it to hit the plants. But yeah, until we have funding for it, it's just begging people to try to switch. MAYOR DICKEY: Well, thank you. Maybe at some point we can do that. Know how many are out there and if it's like some sort of a voucher or something. But yeah, it's a toughie. One thing I just want to mention because Rachael had said this to me and we do want to remove turf and to conserve water. At the same time I know people think about heat islands and wanting shade. So I think we're well -aware of that addition going to be moving ahead in ways that will take all of that into account, right? Okay? Any other comments or questions? Thank you, Bo. Really appreciate it. GRZYBOWSKI: Thank you, Bo. SKILLICORN: Madam Mayor? MAYOR DICKEY: Everybody okay? So I was just going to ask if you -- sorry. For those that are waiting, we're going to take a little break. So everybody can get a drink and do what they need to do. And just so that you know we're going to switch two of the items. Well, when we get there I'll let you know, they're on the regular agenda. But well do the consent agenda first. Thank you. CLERK'S NOTE: Town Council recessed at 7:08 pm. And reconvened the meeting at 7:18 p.m. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you all for indulging our break. Our next item is our call to the public. And I'm sure we have some speaker cards over there, Linda? MENDENHALL: Yes, we do. Page 41 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Thank you. MENDENHALL: Yes, we do. What we're going to do is, you have a packet. We'II go through them first. And first one is Sherri James and she is for item 6A. Then she also had one in for 9A, but she has her actual comments on the first comment card for 9A. So I thought it was good to point both them out. Don Scott -- MAYOR DICKEY: Sony. So you'll just say the name and the position? MENDENHALL: Yes. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. MENDENHALL: And then Don Scott is for 6A and 9A. Mike Scharnow is for 9A. Vanessa Davisson is for 9A. Kathy Schanus-Gohl is for 9A. KALIVIANAKIS: Ms. Mayor, may I make a point of order? Why are we taking public comment on something that was removed from the agenda? MAYOR DICKEY: We decided that it was in the interest of transparency that -- this item was removed so quickly. I mean, so short before the meeting that we're not reading comments but they deserve to have their names and their positions known. KALIVIANAKIS: But it has been withdrawn, correct? MAYOR DICKEY: Pardon me? KALIVIANAKIS: That item was withdrawn, correct? MAYOR DICKEY: Yes. But we feel that we -- they deserve the right to be heard. KALIVIANAKIS: On an item that's not on our agenda? I don't think that's logical but whatever. Point made. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. MENDENHALL: Richard Gohl is for 9A. Kathleen Butler was for -- I'll just say for the bond. Nancy Rymer is for the bond. Rory Wilson is for the bond. SKILLICORN: Point of order. Aaron, is it legal to do this? ARNSON: So with respect to the agenda item that's been removed, the Mayor made the determination that we're going to move these into the record, considering the last- minute nature of the item. For the council's understanding, if we want to follow the rules of procedure for a point of order, the presiding officer determines the point of Page 42 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING order and then, of course, subject to appeal such determination to the entire council. So that's -- SKILLICORN: Motion to appeal. ARNSON: It says the Mayor ruled on the point of order. I mean, I assume -- MAYOR DICKEY: I heard the point of order but I believe that the public deserves to be heard since we removed it so suddenly. ARNSON: And now we have a motion to appeal. We would need a second. KALIVIANAKIS: I'll second. MAYOR DICKEY: So is there discussion? I don't know that we've ever done this before. MCMAHON: I think that we should go on with it because the agenda item was published and it was removed so quickly. And the public comment is the public comment and they have a right to be heard. And to not, even though it was so quickly removed, I don't think that it's fair to remove their comments. MAYOR DICKEY: Just for a point of precedent. Last meeting we allowed a comment to be read that was actually from the agenda from the two weeks before. So if you want to take a vote on not allowing us to go forward, what would that be? ARNSON: It would be, the question is substantially the following: Shall the decision of the presiding officer be sustained? MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. So is that a -- that's not a motion? ARNSON: That's the question -- that's the motion that's pending on the floor. MAYOR DICKEY: Motion on the table is shall the -- say that again? ARNSON: Decision of the presiding officer be sustained? MAYOR DICKEY: Shall the decision of -- that I just said, be sustained? ARNSON: Right. That you're going to -- MAYOR DICKEY: And there's already a motion and a second? ARNSON: The point of order is not well taken. MAYOR DICKEY: Hannah, did you have a question? I'm sorry. TOTH: I don't know if I have a question. MAYOR DICKEY: 5o if they vote yes, they want — they'll let us continue with the Page 43 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING comments or the reading? Because they sustained my motion -- my ruling? MENDENHALL: And Mayor? ARNSON: Yes. MENDENHALL: Mayor, I have a question. Would that apply to possibly anyone who might have filled out a comment card as well, but didn't put down what they're speaking on? ARNSON: I don't know. I don't know. MAYOR DICKEY: Well, the comment cards are different. So those are people that said they wanted to speak on it. So they're here, right? So they could speak at call to the public. MENDENHALL: They could be here? MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah. They can speak at call to the public. But since we generally don't take online -- and that's what these are right now. We don't take those for call to the public. But we're allowing it. So I think -- hold on one sec. ARNSON: Yeah. The town manager made a good suggestion. Yes, vote means continue reading. No vote means stop reading. MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah. So all in favor to continue listening to these comments -- it's not going to be the comments, just their names and positions. All in favor? We'II take a rollcall? MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Can you go back to me? Because honestly -- okay. Here's the thing. I want to just hear these and get it done with. I don't see why we're spending more time on this. ARNSON: So yes? Okay. You're a yes. TOTH: So I'm a yes vote. GRZYBOWSKI: I'm also a yes vote. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: I'm a no. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: Explain my vote? I believe that it puts the town at legal risk to listen to Main III Page 44 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING these. So I'm a no. MAYOR DICKEY: It's not a legal risk. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: I can concur with Councilmember Skillicorn. That the reason that we're not hearing this tonight is because there was a chance that we were going to be put in legal jeopardy and by even allowing these resources, okay, to be used to tonight to promote or not, this issue, I think opens this town to legal jeopardy. And I don't even know why were voting on this. I thought that this was removed and this was nothing that we should be discussing tonight based on legal counsel of yourself, Aaron. 5o I would be a no. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Yes. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor already voted yes. Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. MENDENHALL: Michael Maroon is for the bond. Dianne Price is for the bond. Liz Gildersleeve is against. Caroline Morelli is against the bond. Paul Qieean is for. Elizabeth Rymer is for. Mary Ann and Chuck Bosnos are against. David Long is for. John McNeill is for. Faryl Palles is for. Now we'll go to -- we have people who are here who wish to comment in writing. Fred James is for 6A. Theresa Crain is for the school bond. Robert Daniels and Joann Daniels are for the school bond. And Lillian Acker is for the bond. Now we'll go to public comment who are here. First is Crystal Cavanaugh and on deck is Gene Slechta. CAVANAUGH: Good evening. So with no disrespect to the superintendent's presentation why did we need this at a town council meeting? By scheduling this tonight, it appears to be an obvious push for this $25 million school bond plus interest, within the walls of this council chamber, without a balanced opposition presentation. There are specific reasons to vote no. Such as, the deficiencies from the Arizona Auditor General report that still need correction. Fiscal management, excess vacant properties, aILLI Page 45 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING declining enrollment, and academic program concerns that could all impact a voter's decision if your goal was simply to inform the public. In addition, I was shocked when I saw the agenda item 9A, in quote, to discus and take a vote of support for the school bond. My first reaction was it had to be a violation of some rule and clearly it was since it was removed. How did it even get there to begin with? To pressure any councilmember to support or to reveal their vote in this council setting while on the dais for an issue not related to town business is outrageous. This is not the school board. This is an inappropriate setting, using taxpayer resources, and it has the appearance of an organized effort to promote the bond. The timing of all this is suspicious. The presentation tonight, the original agenda item 9A, paired with the upcoming public school's rally in the park with Say Yes speakers under the nonprofit number of our Chamber of Commerce who had also issued a letter of support for the bond as well as the Mayor's support and planned attendance. All of which is occurring within days of ballots being mailed out. And this follows the weekend where the spirit of the sign ordinance was violated by allowing excessive cluttering of repetitive yes -signs paired with lax code enforcement for signs too close to hydrants, stop signs, and curbs in the right-of-ways. More than one sign on private property and signs sandwiching their oppositions. The reason some of you had given for reinstating enforcement was to avoid a trashed up Scottsdale look, with people littering the town with signs. Well, that's exactly what you got. At the same time that you restricted others, such as myself, from putting up just five signs in town because the size was not acceptable during this loophole year of a nonprimary. When in other years the state statute would override the town ordinance for size. The numerous say yes signs squeezed through the loophole while the five larger signs were deemed too large. Which of course, was unknown to us and even code enforcement until after the second weekend that they'd been allowed. The town had the power to waive enforcement of the sign restriction during the bond period, but they Page 46 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING did not. Thank you. SLECHTA: Mayor, thank you. Council. My name is Gene Slechta. I'm a 28-year resident in Fountain Hills. First I was excited to be able to be here tonight to hear Dr. J speak on all that is happening within our school district. It was eye-opening and heartening. I wholeheartedly support the approval of the upcoming school bond vote. And I supported the prior one that failed because of so much misinformation. The bond should be approved if for no other reason than student safety measures. There are provisions for security enhancements, fire protection, building infrastructure needs. We have a 30-year-old high school building needing care. We have fallen behind surrounding communities in our school infrastructure. Just one look at school tax rates, like Scottsdale, Gilbert, Mesa, and others tells a story. When I moved here 28 years ago, my property taxes were 50 percent higher than they are today. But yet, we chose to move here for three reasons. It's incredibly beautiful. The investment in the schools -- yes, the investment. And good roads in town and access to town. We brought a family, including a school -aged child, a family under 50 years of age. A family that statistically spends twice as much in the community per capita as those individuals over the town's median age of 59. 59. Scottsdale's median age is in the 40s, Mesa's the 30s. So I think Sun City is a nice place, but I don't want us heading towards being Sun City East. Roads, schools, our two biggest issues must be addressed. You can't attract vibrant young families here without those two things. And we must show them the community's commitment to improve them. And why are we even debating this? The median priced homeowner will be paying nine bucks a month. The median priced homeowner will be paying nine -- and on a per capita basis the price of one Burger King Whopper minus cheese. Or a loaf of bread. Or half of a carwash. In our 28 years here, our home was appreciated over 400 percent and my taxes are a lot less. Others here will speak against the bonds with homes that appreciated 50 percent Page 47 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING in the last five years and their taxes have dropped 10 to 20 percent. If now is not the time to help our youth, then when is the right time? Families get it. The business community and the Chamber gets it. Even fossils like me, I get it. Let's support our youth, pass the bond. Thank you. MENDENHALL: Next we have Kim Wolborsky and Barry Wolborsky on deck. KIM WOLBORSKY: Madam Mayor, council. Oops I'm taller than this. I am a resident of Fountain Hills and very glad to be here and I have a couple of things to comment on tonight. First of all, is the bond. I am against the bond and I'm a person who, for most of my voting life has just been like, oh, money for schools, vote yes. This bond, I think there have just been too many issues with the school board and how they've spent money and the latest one; I have an article from the Fountain Hills Times here in my hand about the library renovation project. And I actually really enjoyed Dr. J's presentation. It gave me a lot of hope about what he's doing for the schools. I was excited that he's been able to get a lot of local money for it -- excuse me, donated money. But if we look at the renovation they're calling it, changing the library into a planetarium. The total cost is almost $600,000. That's after taking out the donation for the dome itself. It's not a free project. And it says here in the -- now this is only as accurate as the Fountain Hills Times, because this is where it came from. So if you're here, hopefully this is right. But Member Settle (ph.) said she would vote no because there's significant repairs that need to be done elsewhere. There are other places to spend our money on the schools than this. And I just feel like this kind of put me over the edge. We need fiscal responsibility. If our schools need money, do we need it for this? I also wanted to say a couple of other things. First of all, cost savings for the town, if we wanted to keep this room a little warmer in the summertime, that would be a great way to save some money. I'm always freezing in here. I don't know what it is like up there. Back here, I'm like, eh. Page 48 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING And I wanted to thank Councilmember Kalivianakis for talking about the online agenda. I learned about that not too long ago and it's really made a difference to be able to look at that ahead of time. There are links to more detailed information and it's really helped me to know more and to be able to appreciate the meeting more. So thank you for bringing that up. I think that's everything. Oh, Hispanic Heritage Month, I just wanted to say my husband and I have been here in Fountain Hills for almost four years now, and we started studying Spanish almost immediately and we're still terrible at it. But we're working at it. Thank you. Okay, I'm still terrible at it. BARRY WOLBORSKY: I'm Kim's husband and I'm a resident of Fountain Hills. And Rachael, I want to start off by saying thank you for putting the flag back up in Golden Eagle Park. I appreciate that. I'm going to talk about the Arizona Attorney Auditor General's report on the school district which was dated May 24th, 2023. Not very long ago. And I'm just going to hit a few high points because there's eight pages of deficiencies. There is no conflict of interest policy. No support for journal entries. They actually have interest fees and late fees on their credit cards. That blows me away. No documentation for student activity receipts. They studied assets. They only picked ten assets. Out of the ten assets, five were missing and they were $50,000 and they couldn't find them on the premises. So your guess is as good as mine where they are. They don't have contract -- there was a $50,000 contract with no bidding, given by an employee of the school district who had major interest in the company it was given to. These are not little deficiencies, okay. They had two employees on student activities fund and there was never a vote of the students to have those employees, which is mandatory. The district does not obtain written bids for purchases. Go that? Did not keep track of employee absences. Did not keep track of enrollment. And now, they have a specific way you have to keep track of enrollment. It's not how many students are in school today. It's how many students finish at the end of the year, according to the auditor. Page 49 o1119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING I had an opportunity to speak with an auditor about a different project this week. And I asked them, well, if they say its been -- it's a new administration now and it's been corrected, what do you think? And what she said to me was, she said we hear that a lot. We can't validate anything until a next audit is performed. 5o as of right now, they are deficient and would you give the people who are managing your money $25 million? I wouldn't give them 525. MENDENHALL: Next we have Kimberly Bartman and on deck, Tom Lindsey. BARTMAN: Hello Mayor and council. So I was going to have a really sweet, feel -good kind of thing I was going to offer, but since I got to hear some other folks speak, I would just like to say and encourage everyone on YouTube and everything to go to one -- that's O-N-E-F-H.org because you can find more accurate information about the bond. You can also attend a town hall and 1 didn't see any of the people that oppose the bond at Dr. J's town hall last week. Because you could ask questions and you had a whole presentation about the funding for the bond. And really great information. So there's a town hall coming up on Wednesday, September 27th at 6:30 p.m. at the McDowell Mountain elementary school gym. There's also a town hall on Monday, October 2nd, at 6:30 p.m. at the Fountain Hills High School cafeteria. Everyone in our town is able to come listen to the presentation which talks all about the finance parts. Tonight you didn't get to hear any of that. But that is -- I went to the town hall last week and it was awesome. Great information. And again, One, ONEFH.org. is the website where you can find out more information. Now, back to my nice part of the presentation here. I moved here in 2001 and it was because of the beauty, the smalltown feel, the access to the big city and airport, and also reports in a parent magazine about Fountain Hills being a great place to raise kids. In 2006 my husband and I had a daughter and she went to the Fountain Hills kindergarten, all the way till now she's a Fountain Hills High School senior. In our community there's been older folks that took us under their wing because we didn't have family in town and it was incredible the support the people gave to us. From the gym I met this older couple and they had a baby shower for us. We had all kinds of Page 50 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING people come together to support us all over these years. And I also -- sorry, I'm nervous. So the community's come together and tomorrow, having the Fountain Hills homecoming parade down on the Avenue again, when my little daughter, who's a senior, was itty-bitty, she used to go out there and cheer on those high school seniors and it was a great community event. And I just want to say that. Okay, I'm going to back to reading. Okay. So I'm grateful to the teachers, volunteers, school bus drivers, school staff, coaches, PTO parents, community supporting our kids, an awesome town, amazing place to live. My daughter will graduate in May and go off to college. Even though I will no longer have a student in the Fountain Hills district, I will continue to support our schools. MAYOR DICKEY: Kim, we ran out of time. Sorry. BARTMAN: And I will retire here and continue to support the schools. Thanks. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. LINDSEY: Good evening Mayor, fellow councilmembers. Thank you for still being awake. These are the things I don't miss as a former superintendent. I was an educator for 40-plus years and I want to give you some perspectives of the bond from a former superintendent educator and from what I've seen, read, and heard. First of all, Dr.., has to work on his enthusiasm and positive attitude. Had to get a laugh in here. How many of you think that you, as a municipality, get enough money from the State of Arizona? Same thing with the school districts across the state. There's insufficient funding. And the school districts have to do what you have to do. How am I going to fix the roads? How am I going to fix the fountain? How am I going to fix the leaks in the community center? They have to figure out how I'm going to maintain those 20- and 30-year-old buildings just like your house and your house and my house. Where I've had to put on roofs and new windows and new doors. But on top of that, the school districts are responsible for maybe 1,100, maybe 1,200, maybe another school district has 12,000. But we have to give them, no matter if it's only 1,100 students or 11,000 students the best buildings, the most secure and safe buildings that we can possibly give Page 51of119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING them. This concerns about taxes, you don't think that Dr. J and the governing board were concerned about having to come out and try to convince everybody that they want to pay more taxes? Of course not. But to me the gauge of whether we should pay more taxes or not, is does it fulfill needs of the community or wants of the community? And it is my opinion that security, better buildings, better curriculum, improving learning conditions for staff and students is critical. lust like better roads is critical. And when you squeeze the budget as much as you can and you put Band-Aids as many places as you possibly can, what's the option? Right now, 23 out of the 58 school districts in Maricopa County are either going for a bond and override or a lease sale of property. This is not just a Fountain Hills challenge. This is a universal challenge, not just in Arizona but across the country. And as citizens, at some point, it is our civil responsibility to close the gap. Now there's -- oh, is that the time? So thank you for listening. Thank you for giving Dr. J an opportunity and please go to the town hall to find out more about testing and the audit. MENDENHALL: Next we have Linda Somo. On deck -- I don't' see him any longer, Art Tolles, are you out there? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: No, he had to leave. MENDENHALL: He did leave? Okay. So then on deck is Michael Scott. SOMO: Good evening Mayor and council. My name's Linda Somo. I'm a retiree, living on a fixed income. But I'm here tonight to encourage you as individuals, even if you can't do it as a council to support the Fountain Hills School District bond election. I do this for two reasons. One is very selfish, and that is as a homeowner, I'm concerned about my property values. Ask any realtor and they will tell you one of the most important factors in attracting new businesses and new families to a community, is the quality of the school district. Our schools are terribly underfunded, as you just heard. And yet, do a great job as we heard from Dr. J tonight. The funds that would be in this bond are desperately needed to keep our schools improving and to keep them on the Page 52 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING road to being superior schools again. The value of my home has increased over 50 percent since I moved here and I want those values to stay there and not be hurt by a faltering school district that is underfunded. Reason number two. Some of the funds from this bond will help to make our schools safer and more secure for our students. Two important facts to keep in mind. There have been over 500 mass shootings already this year, and we're only in September. A mass shooting is defined as four or more people being shot or killed. That's a horrifying statistic, especially when it happens in our schools. The number one cause of deaths for children in this country is from gun violence. That to me is just amazing that that's why our children are dying. If we truly love our children and want to protect them, then let's give them schools that are safe and secure and they have the ability to reach their full potential in that school. For these reasons I'm very willing to spend the extra nine dollars or more per month to fund our schools, to keep our children safe and to keep my property values up. Please, as individuals -- MAYOR DICKEY: Time's up. SOMO: -- support the bond election. Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. SCOTT: Mayor, council, I'm Michael Scott. I've been here for 30 years. I'd like to discuss something that happened two weeks ago. There was a last-minute discussion before -- MAYOR DICKEY: Could you use the mic? I'm sorry, I don't want to interrupt. But I can't hear you that well. Thanks. SCOTT: Okay. At the last meeting amendments to the ethics policy were distributed by a member of the council and were not made available to the public. That way what occurred next, was we weren't able to follow some of the information that they had in their possession. If that had been brought to our attention we would have been able to follow it better. I think you can do better than that. Get the information out to us. I'd like to discuss bonds. Just take a look at our roads and schools. The bonds we have, Page 53 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING some of the numbers for the cost are exorbitant and I don't know what kind of fuzzy math they're using. But these bonds are going to cost what? $25 million bond, less than $150 per year per residency. You have to look at a bond as a line of credit, just like a bank would issue a line of credit. You only owe up to what you spend. You don't have $25 million and then -- it's not owed to up until that point. It is simply a line of credit. And it is affordable by this community. I'd also like to say on your Roads First program, I heard less in the last three months about this program than anything else. It was brought forward as a ten-year program, $8 million a year for roads, but where did you get the money from? Out of a hat? No idea. That's impossible to do. Thank you for your time. MENDENHALL: Okay. Next -- I can't read your last name, but your first name is Joseph and I want to say -- GRECO: Greco. MENDENHALL: Greco. Okay. And then on deck, Gary Zain have you -- you didn't? Okay. So after Joseph will be Mathew Corrigan. GRECO: Hi everybody. Thank you for your time today. I'm new on mics so please excuse me for any errors I may make. Has anybody fought for you in your history? Anybody? Anybody fought for you? Do you think anybody's fought for you in your history? I believe they have. I can start with my grandfather in World War 11, he fought for all of you. My father fought for you in Vietnam. And my nephew fought for you in Afghanistan. They were all injured at war. They all have Purple Hearts. Every one of them fought for you. 1 need you to fight for us, for our schools, for our purpose, for our future. 1 know they sound like cliches, but they're all true. They should ring bells with you because they're facts. Without our schools we have nothing. It's the biggest heartbeat in this community, is our school. I heard a lot today about maintenance for other aspects of our community; it's no different with the schools. I heard about some fish in our lake that we want to save. Page 54 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING And I'm fine with that. I'm fine with conserving water and all of that. Why you don't support the schools, I have no idea. Because that is the biggest heartbeat we have. And without it we're just a desert with an oasis but no schools. I don't see how that makes sense to anybody. You know I didn't write something down for us today, wasn't really sure what I wanted to share. I'm not really sure what will convince other people that it's important; I don't' know. But I can tell you that I got approval from my wife today to sell my house and move because I'm not going to live in a community with this much anger and frustration. It's not what I bought into for. Because I can't do without an approval; it's just the way it rolls in my house. In addition to my father, my grandfather, and my nephew, my brothers save lives every day and they're part of this community. One of them went through our programs. So I came here to grow roots and they're now sour. And if that's the community that we're going to prosper in, I'm not going to be part of it. I will leave. Others will leave and you will not attract the lives you need to make this a prosperous community. Thank you. CORRIGAN: Madam Mayor, councilmembers. Matthew Corrigan, homeowner, resident of Fountain Hills. Building financial trust in people and institutions is usually based on how well they perform fiduciary responsibilities. Are they transparent? Do they follow the rules, laws, and guidelines? Do they honestly report financial matters to the proper authorities? When it comes time to ask residents to pay more taxes by voting for a 15- year, $25 million bond amounting to about 48 million after interest is paid, the Fountain Hills School District would probably what to build trust. But have they built trust? Some of you are aware and have read the May 24th letter from the Arizona Auditor General informing Fountain Hills Unified School District that it is not in compliance with the uniform system of financial records for Arizona school districts. The district was given 90 days to respond from May 24th of this year. Have they responded? Spoke with Megan Smith with the Arizona Auditor General office on Wednesday, September 23rd and she confirmed at the time that Fountain Hills Unified School District remains Page 55 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING noncompliant until a final written reply is received. She said they are working with them. Not only that, but the Auditor General cited eight pages of noncompliance. Let me list just a few. One, the district did not annually provide employees guidance on what constitutes conflicts of interest. Two, governing board members did not report any conflicts and employees did not complete annual conflict of interest forms. Three, the district did not post the notice of public hearing for the December revised budget ten days prior to the meeting. Four, the district recorded bond payments of $1 million to long-term debt rather than bond principal payments and 11 more coding errors. Five, the district used the maintenance and operations account rather than miscellaneous clearing account to pay multiple payments and thousands of dollars. Six, 3 of 26 disbursements a purchase order was prepared after the goods and services were ordered. Seven, for all ten vendors reviewed with purchases between 10,000 and $100,000 the district did not, not obtain written quotes. Eight, the district spent $48,000 with a vendor with which an employee -- an employee, has substantial interest in the business. Nine, the district did not provide employees annual security training nor did it provide disaster recovery planning documents. I could go on and on but there are 65 such noncompliant issues. If this were a report card, how would I grade Fountain Hills school district? Transparency, D-minus. Follow the rules, laws, and guidelines, F. Honesty in reporting finances, D-minus. Would I vote for a $25 million bond? No. Would you? ALL: Yes. Yes. Definitely. MENDENHALL: Next we have Betsy LaVoie and then Stephen Gay on deck. LAVOIE: Good evening council, Mayor. Betsy LaVoie, 44 year resident. I was thankful for Fountain Hills Unified School District K through eight. It was our only school. I went there. And I am thankful as a mom to have the school district and have many options too for our kids. But I'm here not as a parent and not as a resident. I wanted to share the Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce launched in March of this year an app called Visit Fountain Hills. mwasemmxste Page 56 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING Visit Fountain Hills is to support, celebrate, inform all that is Fountain Hills; all of our businesses, all of our nonprofits. And you might know the Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce to shop local, to celebrate and encourage dine local. But what you might not realize is we also encourage to worship local, to do everything local. To educate local. You can find everything Fountain Hills, including our parks, including our trails, everything Fountain Hills right within that app. And I'm very confused why it would be perceived as a negative thing that the Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce would support a rally for positivity for our public schools? Why is that a negative thing? When you ask why parents don't stay with their kids, my daughter's only here because she had to get dropped off here because I'm still here and I didn't get to leave to go pick her up. I would not want my kids to sit through the town council meetings with the vitriol that we hear. That's not something that I would want my children to regularly hear. So just to share why that doesn't happen and why it happened today. But I do want to share quickly -- I'm probably almost out of time. The Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce did endorse the school bond and we did so -- and I'm going to read and I have one for each of you. The Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce proudly supports the bond for the Fountain Hills Unified School District. We understand that a thriving school district is a cornerstone of a vibrant community. When families consider relocating the strength of a local school district is one of their primary criteria. An excellent school district not only benefits our students' education but also fortifies the entire community. A strong school district enhances our business community as well. It attracts skilled professionals and their families, boosting the local workforce and talent pool. As property values rise due to the appeal of excellent schools, both residential and commercial properties benefit. This positive impact resonates throughout our town, fostering a sense of community pride and unity. The Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce recognizes that supporting the school district is an investment in our collective future. By endorsing this bond we are fostering growth, prosperity, and an enduring small town community spirit. Let us rally together to ensure that our schools continue to excel and that our wanamarurlaTrnsmumorammadom Page 57 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING community remains a desirable place to not only live and work, but also thrive. And I have a letter for each of you for later consideration. I also want to share that when you a thriving school district and you encourage that workforce, that resonates through every single part of our community. And for those are you who are against the bond go to one of the town halls. If you're a parent you'd be for this bond. I'm telling you. We have seen, as a parent, we have seen the changes that our current superintendent has made and using last audit information is like my board of directors not approving my budget because my predecessor's actions. It's unfair and it's not right. And so thank you very much. GAY: [Spanish language]. Good evening. And I'll keep this brief. I'm in favor of the school bond. Good schools keep property values up. Resale value should be important to all homeowners here in our beloved corner of the Sonoran Desert. At some point, having bake sales and relying on our wealthier citizens and volunteer painting crews to keep our schools at minimum standards will stop working. Plus, the next time a millionaire may not come forward. Accountability and conflicts of interest has been brought up tonight. It's my understanding that in Arizona schools funded by vouchers, for instance, the school can buy books from the principals wife in a no -bid contract. I'm just curious what the level of concern is with these people who have brought up accountability and conflict of interest issues with our school, I'm wondering what their level of concern is, how their tax dollars are being spent at schools paid for by vouchers? And that expenses is going to balloon to $1 billion for the State of Arizona. There are many in this country who are fundamentally opposed to the very concept of public education. In their view, an angel in school voucher heaven gets its wings every time a no -vote is cast on this bond issue. Thank you. MENDENHALL: Next we have Lori Troller. And then the next two cards, it looks like they wanted to comment in writing in support of 9A. One is Al Ronca and the other is Rick Page 58 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING Brown. If I'm incorrect let me know. TROLLER: Guess what I'm going to talk about? It's not the school bond. Mayor, council, Linda, Rachael, Aaron. Lori Troller, resident. My topic tonight is 5G broadband and the timeline to complete the ordinance. As you know we're sitting in the middle of September and the broadband moratorium ends at the end of January, basically four and a half months from now. Being that the planning and zoning meets once a month, they're going to need at least four months to start and complete their work on the ordinance and the council's going to need, optimistically, two months to start and stop -- or start and complete their work. That takes us to the end of March and that's if Aaron's able to give the ordinance to planning and zoning in the next eight business days, if everything were to go perfectly. His schedule's already been completely blown by finishing in March and not the end of the moratorium in January. The 56 ordinance needs to become a topic assigned with precedence over other town issues. The very real issue is the tower industry doesn't have to wait any longer for us to get an ordinance done. All the other issues we prioritize for ourselves are of no concern to them. There is no excuse -- no acceptable excuse to them that we aren't ready with a new ordinance after six months' grace period of the moratorium. If we don't get this done the old ordinance will stand which provides no protection to the proliferation. So this is urgent and it needs to be treated as such. I'm asking that the council and planning and zoning be placed on emergency meeting schedule to expediate the work to meet the end of January moratorium deadline or until the ordinance is done. MENDENHALL: That's it for public comment. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. I really appreciate it. Thank you all for coming. COUTURE: I have a comment. Mine was the first one in. MAYOR DICKEY: Uh-oh. MENDENHALL: Why don't you come up and speak for the record? State your name for the record, for sure. COUTURE: Did you find it? Page 59 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING M EN DEN HALL: It's down here. Oh. COUTURE: Flew through the wind. Okay. My name is Cindy Couture and I am a long- time resident of Fountain Hills. I'm really glad I came here tonight because as a teacher, 40 years and counting -plus. I've been mystified why people are against this bond. I taught at our high school for 12 years. I loved our school and our school district and I couldn't figure out what -- you know, where is all tis negativity coming from? It's a miniscule drop in the bucket as far as a tax raise. But now that I'm hearing all these people talk about the audit, I finally am understanding. Okay, if that's what you're going by, I agree with you. It's terrible. I can't believe that they made decisions without bids. I can't believe that they spent money that unwisely. But it's like Betsy LaVoie said, that was then. This is now. That's why the old superintendent is gone and that's why we have Dr. J in here. And he's been working himself to death trying to move the schools together, trying to get good employees, trying to make sure the money is spent well. And I'm sure that when the next audit is in, we'll see a really good result from all his work. But give him a chance for God's sake, you guys. On some of your social medias you're just crucifying the school district and that's not fair. You don't know of what you speak. I do. I've been there. As town leaders you should know that the school district is interwoven into our town. And as many people have said, it's a big deal and we need to support it. I taught many of our kids and they've gone into the community. I taught Viree's son, who was one of my smartest AP English students. He's now in the military, in an upper rank and he's in Afghanistan serving our country. And I could go on with a huge list. Our kids from Fountain Hills are amazing and they've gone to universities all over the country because our schools have given them a good start. My feeling is we need to know that education comes with a price tag and we need to pay that price tag. Somebody educated everybody in this room. Somebody paid taxes for all of us to get an education and we need to pay for our kids to have the same kind of education. Page 60 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING And if you need one more reason, I just got this from a mortgage broker who said that right now, in some lenders, there's a little box that you have to check. And I won't even tell you about it, but you can ask me later. Vote yes. MENDENHALL: Now that's the end of public comment. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Thank you all. Our next item is our consent agenda. Can I get a motion or-- Councilwoman? KALIVIANAKIS: I would actually -- thank you, Ms. Mayor. I would actually like to remove from the consent agenda items number C through G. SKILLICORN: Actually, I'd recommend let's go through them all. Let's go through them all individually. MAYOR DICKEY: Wait what? You want to remove all the consent agenda? SKILLICORN: Yeah. MAYOR DICKEY: Including the minutes? SKILLICORN: Yeah. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. So these will become our regular agenda items and we'll discuss them as such. The first item on the agenda is our approval of minutes. GRZYBOWSKI: Move to approve. TOTH: Second. MAYOR DICKEY: Discussion? Any discussions? You wanted it removed and there's no discussion? All in favor? Please take a roll call vote? MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. Page 61 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Aye. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Next item, approving special event liquor license application for Fountain Hills Theatre for a beer garden in conjunction with the Fountain Hills Theater opening night celebration on November 3rd, 2023. GRZYBOWSKI: Move to approve as written? MCMAHON: Second. MAYOR DICKEY: Any discussion? Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. One thing I had a question about . I see that there's a series of these together. And I see November, December, January, February, March. These are multiple months in a row. This is not a special event. This is a regular occurrence. And frankly, it looks to me like they're just trying to skirt the fee of actually having a liquor license. So I would recommend that the theatre go through the process of seeking a liquor license instead of having regular special events, basically skirting the liquor laws and trying to also get it at a lower cost. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman? TOTH: If you don't mind I'd like make a note on that just coming from the role of an event planner. I believe the amount is 12 in a year and they have you check when you apply for a special event liquor license. Which, with each one you have to put this is how many this site has had in a year. That rule is something that the county is very strict on. I've been to the county to get liquor licenses approved, they check on that. I have to disagree that this is trying to skirt anything. It's one night in a month. A few months in a row, yes. But they're not breaking the rule that's currently in place. I Page 62 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING believe it's 12 in a year. It might even be more than that. But I believe it's at least the 12. But you do have to place how many special event days have been issued to this organization -- thank you, Councilmember Grzybowski -- during the calendar year. And with each application you have to write that and the county checks that. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman? MCMAHON: Also these are separate events and they're separate, basically, celebrations. They might be classified as opening night celebrations, et cetera. But they are all individual in their own merit and therefore --that's my understanding of why they are separate liquor licenses being applied for. It's not inconsistent. It's consistent with the past. They're not trying to pull anything as far as I know. The theatre has a stellar reputation. It's very transparent. I would be shocked if they were trying to circumvent anything in this town. They bring in a lot of revenue for the town and therefore I'm going to make a motion to approve -- MAYOR DICKEY: 1 think we already do. MCMAHON: Pardon? MAYOR DICKEY: I think we already have a motion. ARNSON: Yeah. MCMAHON: Okay. Then I'll second the motion for every single one of them to be approved. MAYOR DICKEY: Right. Rachael? GOODWIN: I just wanted to offer a point of clarification. The dates listed generally correspond with their opening night of whatever show they are producing. So each one is a different show, it's a different cast and I imagine it's a different audience that they're appealing to. So those correlate. Which is why you would see the different dates requested. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. So there's a motion and a second on the table to approve this one for -- which one are we on? GRZYBOWSKI: We're technically on B, but if I may move to approve B through G, which is all Fountain Hills Theatre thing; can we do it that way? Page 63 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MAYOR DICKEY: Like an amendment? GRZYBOWSKI: Oh, sorry. Can we do it that way? ARNSON: Well, my recommendation would be approve B, and then if you want to approve -- GRZYBOWSKI: Okay. ARNSON: -- the rest as a slate, let's just get this one done. GRZYBOWSKI: Okay. All right, I'll do that next then. ARNSON: And then we can talk about the rest of them. Because I assume they were removed for a reason. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Roll call, please. MENDENHALL: Councilmember 5killicorn? SKILLICORN: No. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Aye. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dicke? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. The next item, I'll take a motion. GRZYBOWSKI: Move to approve items number C through G. MCMAHON: Second. KALIVIANAKIS: I'd like discussion please, if I could? MAYOR DICKEY: Yes, ma'am. Page 64 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Yeah, I initially did want to pull these off just for discussion. I was going to vote for B and that's why I didn't try to pull B off of there. On the other hand, I think that applying for a liquor license it's kind of a big deal and that's why we have to approve it as a matter of town council business. Because with alcohol and events, again, it could lead to mischief. It could lead to drunken driving. As a former prosecutor that prosecuted DUIs, that set up victim impact panels and dealt with this first-hand. I've seen the consequences of drinking and driving. On the other hand, I can appreciate that they want to have a beer garden at their grand openings. And I'd like to discuss this not in terms of Fountain Hills Theater because I think that's a beloved theater in our town and I think that we all fully support the theater. So my argument, so to speak, is not with this particular theater and these particular applications. It's just to open up the general discussion to, is it a good -- is it a matter of good public policy to approve liquor licenses a year in advance? And that's what I'm wondering tonight. Again, taking Fountain Hills Theater off the table. But if it was a Fountain Hills X, Y, Z, I wonder if they had their first party and there was a fatality and it was found because of they were drinking at Fountain Hills X, Y, Z would we want to give them another liquor license and two months later? Probably not. But they would have already been issued. And so -- and unless there's a state agency that could cancel their liquor license in the future, I just think it would be more responsible to just do every two months do the application. We can summarily approve it on the consent agenda and just be done with it. So like I said, to me I just want to bring this up as just a matter of discussion. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman? TOTH: Thank you, Councilwoman and thank you, Mayor. Again, event planner, I have turned in liquor licenses. The county would be able to -- if I had submitted something for December 2024 and January of 2024. And at the January 2024 even something horrible happens and my name was on that liquor license and I'm responsible for this person being overserved, they would say that they're pulling -- that Page 65 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING that liquor license is now null and void for December. So that is already the case. That's why this goes through the town municipality and then the county. Is that it's not just the county, the bureaucratic side overseeing it. It's not just the government overseeing it. There's two levels of approval and even at that point I could have the liquor license in my hand and they could say, you can't have one anymore. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman? Vice mayor? GRZYBOWSKI: I appreciate the conversation and thank you very much for your points as an event planner. I think also planning events, I'm going to use the theater as the example because they are the ones that are on the list today. They need to be able to plan and they want to be able to print it in their program and they need to know -- they need to budget, they need -- if we tell them you can only do two at a time or three at a time, it doesn't go with the flow of their season and they may need to print new programs. Something may need to happen that will cost them money. Like Councilrnember Toth said, there are already things built into the system and we can just pull up easy-peasy the application to see how many there are during the course of the year. So I don't have a problem with this. I appreciate the comments. I just don't see that we need to nitpick beyond what we've already nitpicked them for. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilman? SKILLICORN: Madam Mayor, Town Manager Goodwin, what is the cost of a liquor license? GOODWIN: Each liquor license is a 525 permit process for the town. SKILLICORN: Afull on liquor license? GOODWIN: Oh, a business based liquor license? SKILLICORN: Yes. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible). GOODWIN: I was going to say, it is. And they are generally difficult to obtain. They transfer generally with property. So it's not something as easy as just going down and submitting an application. SKILLICORN: Thank you very much. That just confirms my objection of them doing this Page 66 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING month after month after month. They should apply for a real liquor license. MAYOR DICKEY: This is not about councilwoman event for A, B, C, whatever. It's for a 37-year entity in this town that there has never been any issues with at all. This is the way they do it. To accuse them of skirting anything or doing something they shouldn't be doing is entirely inappropriate and I would like to call for the question, if I'm allowed to do that. ARNSON: Mayor and council, if we're calling for the question we need a motion, a second. MAYOR DICKEY: Let's just take a vote. ARNSON: Okay. MAYOR DICKEY: Could we get a roll call? GRZYBOWSKI: So wait. I'm now confused. We're voting on the motion that I've already made? MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah. GRZYBOWSKI: Or -- ARNSON: We're voting on your motion. MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah. GRZYBOWSKI: Okay. MAYOR DICKEY: For everything. SKILLICORN: And if it's not unanimous, it doesn't pass correct? ARNSON: No, it's a simple majority. SKILLICORN: How can you do a consent agenda that's not unanimous? MAYOR DICKEY: It doesn't have to be. ARNSON: It's not on the consent agenda. They're regular items. MAYOR DICKEY: It does not -- SKILLICORN: But how can you group them together? Her motion was to group them all together. MAYOR DICKEY: Right. KARNSON: Well, if you don't want to approve them all together, vote against it. I guess. Page 67 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MAYOR DICKEY: We have a motion on the table to approve items C through G. Can I please have a roll call? MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Nay. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? FRIEDEL: Aye. KMENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: No. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thank you. Move on to our next consent -- I mean, our regular agenda item and discuss budge transfers for a vehicle. Who's going to do this? GOODWIN: I'm going to ask Director Pock to step up, please. MAYOR DICKEY: Oh, thank you. POCK: Hello. I don't have a presentation for this. But I'll answer any questions. MAYOR DICKEY: Who has questions? SKILLICORN: Madam Mayor? MAYOR DICKEY: There. Okay. SKILLICORN: Director Pock, what is the -- so correct me if I'm wrong here. It's a couple of pickup trucks? What's the mileage on the ones that we're replacing? POCK: That's a different agenda item. SKILLICORN: Oh, I'm sorry. POCK: These are just budget transfers for fiscal year '23. Page 68 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING SKILLICORN: Oh. POCK: I can say these are fairly routine at the end of the fiscal year. We're undergoing our audit. Just cleaning up different -- MCMAHON: I make a motion to approve -- SKILLICORN: And Madam Mayor? MCMAHON: -- H. SKILLICORN: Director Pock, what fund is it coming from and going to? POCK: So the three that you see there for capital projects is going from the capital projects fund to the capital projects fund. Just specifically between projects. SKILLICORN: Okay. POCK: And then the one for the vehicle is going from general fund to the vehicle replacement fund. SKILLICORN: Okay. Motion to approve. MCMAHON: Already made a motion. MAYOR DICKEY: We have a motion on the table already. We had a motion on the table from -- SKILLICORN: Second. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Roll call, please. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: Yes. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Grzybowski? Page 69 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Now we're going to discuss approving a map of dedication for Serenity Estates. Who does something like that? GOODWIN: That will be John. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Hi John. WESLEY: Good evening Mayor and council. This is a plat. Serenity Estates was actually platted back in 2008 and was never actually developed. A new owner purchased it a couple of years ago and has been working on getting all the plans approved to move it forward and actually begin construction there. During that process, we recognized a need to make a slight enlargement to the size of the cul de sac at the end of the road to handle turning movements for particularly firetrucks. They found a different avenue to bring water in from the west. And they needed to dedicate an easement for that water line. And there's some walls along the street and there's a wall easement for those. That easement needed to be extended. So this map of dedication continues the same plat with the same lots but makes some of those changes to the easements. MAYOR DICKEY: Can I get a motion? MCMAHON: I have a motion to approve -- what is it? I. SKILLICORN: Madam Mayor? May I ask Director Wesley? 5o you mentioned a cul de sac change? WESLEY: Yes. SKILLICORN: Is that something the town is funding or the owner of the property? WESLEY: So the owner of the property will fund all the construction. This map of dedication adds five foot extra easement around the cul de sac to handle the width of the cul de sac. SKILLICORN: So the cul de sac is unchanged, it's just the easement? WESLEY: The easement around it, yes. Page 70 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING SKILLICORN: Okay. Thank you. GRZYBOWSKI: Second. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Roll call, please. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. On our regular agenda we're going to start with 9C because I believe we have an applicant here who has patiently been at this meeting. WESLEY: Mayor and council. Yes, this is a request for a special use permit. As we've gone over a few times before but just as a reminder. Zoning ordinance sets up various uses permitted by right in each zoning district. Residential uses are allowed in our commercial zoning districts only through consideration and approval of a special use permit. An application has been made for three lots at the northwest corner of Pueblo and Ivory Drive. This shows the overall plat 106 area in the red outline. It's located in the northeast portion of the town, just south of some of the state trust land. And the hatched area shows the area of the request for the special use permit. This platted area began development back in the early'70s. There's been no development activity in this area since 2004. As you compare the two areas from 2004 to 2022, you see .. ate..., ,,,..... .,. m.--...-.», ..,,..,.,,,.—:...,v.�..�.®.._. Page 71 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING there's really nothing that changed in the area. Recently, however, there have been some proposals for some modifications and the use permits approved. Let's see if this is -- I pushed the right button. In this location, it's a two-story structure, four years ago or so. A special use permit was approved for a second story residential in that building. It was occupied with that use for a period of time but this, as I understand the business in there currently is not using it for residential. A little over a year ago you approved a mixed -use building at the corner of Ivory and El Pueblo, office and parking on the ground floor and four residential units on the upper level. The building permit is basically ready to be issued for that particular development to move forward. Back, I believe in May or June, you approved at the corner of Glenbrook and Fountain Hills Boulevard a ten -unit residential development through a special use permit and this evening were looking at the area in green on the north side of the parking lot there along Ivory. The applicant is proposing seven three -bedroom dwelling units. Most of them two -car garages, the one on the east end just has a one -car garage. These are the floor plans for the units. The ground floor has the kitchen, dining, living area and the garage. Upstairs has the three bedrooms and two bathrooms. These are anticipated elevations. These are preliminary at this point. If the special use permit is approved, the applicant would come back through with their formal site plan and provide additional detail and possible minor modifications. Staff reviewed this. As we typically do, we start by looking at the general plan; what is it recommending for the area. The neighborhood element talks about the importance of a broad range of housing types and densities. It does direct highest densities towards the town center along the Shea corridor. This is in the mixed neighborhood character area, which anticipates smaller lots with a mix of residential, nonresidential uses. Encourages redevelopment and infill consistent with the neighborhood. Section 2.02 F ld of the zoning ordinance sets for the criteria for review and consideration of special use permits and basically says the approval should be based on the use not being Page 72 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING detrimental to public health, safety, welfare, and not detrimental or injurious to the property or improvements in the area. So again, as we look at this and look at the area and the nature of the proposal, we broke this down into three questions. Will allowing residential use be detrimental to desired commercial activity in the area. We've seen no new building of commercial nature in this area since 2003/2004. Generally, we feel like we're over zoned for commercial development and residential development in the area would add residents to frequent the businesses and maybe help stimulate other commercial activity in the area. And on the flipside of that, new development could discourage nonresidential development. So you get too much residents and the commercial developers may feel like it's no longer a commercial area, it might not be viable. So it could potentially impede commercial development. Will allowing residential use be detrimental to surrounding residential neighborhood? This zoning district allows a 25-foot tall building. The adjacent residential allows for 30 foot tall. So these buildings would be smaller in that regard. That is one 78 long building. It will be a little bit bigger in terms of scale and mass to the other buildings in the area. Will allowing residential use be detrimental to surrounding residential neighborhood? Gives a little bit higher density than what's adjacent to the north and east, but it does help provide that transition to the commercial that's to the west. Will residential use create a desirable living environment? It's across the street from other residential areas. It has access to shopping, schools, churches, parks, other typical amenities you would want in a residential area. The units themselves won't have much private space, small courtyards in the front and right adjacent to a commercial parking lot so that might not be quite as desirable as other residential living environments. Citizen participation was carried out through this property and notices were mailed to property owners in the area. Staff received no comments and the applicant didn't really receive any either through that process. But when we were at the planning and zoning commission meeting we did have two citizens come to speak. One was one of the residents to the east who spoke in favor of the request. Page 73 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING And one was a representative of the plat 106 development who also came and spoke in favor of the request. As the P&Z commission looked at this the particularly put weight on the market. This commercial area does not front on the main street and they feel like, given the overall commercial zoning we have available that it's just very unlikely for this to develop with a commercial use in the future and felt that the residential use was much more viable and would help stimulate other commercial development and fit with the neighborhood. They had two concerns that they want staff to look at and address through the site plan review process. One was to ensure that the alley gets paved. That will provide the access to the garages. And that there be at least an 18-foot deep driveway on the lots between the alley and the garages. So that is something that we can address through that site plan process. So the planning commission has recommended approval of the special use permit request. MAYOR DICKEY: I'm going to open the public hearing and ask if we have any speaker cards? MENDENHALL: No, Mayor, we do not. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Did you want to ask John some questions? FRIEDEL: John, I was at the planning and zoning meeting. And did the applicant agree to the stipulations of planning and zoning? WESLEY: Yes. FRIEDEL: Okay. We also approved another project for him up there, didn't we? Similar -- in the same area, earlier this year? WESLEY: Yes. So his project is the one here on this corner. FRIEDEL: Yeah. WESLEY: And architecture will be similar in both buildings. FRIEDEL: So my question -- can I ask the applicant a question? Mr. Gurczak? GURCZAK: Can I come up? FRIEDEL: Yeah, please. Is your goal to do both of these at the same time or -- GURCZAK: That's what it kind of looks like it's going to be. I have the other one for an extension. Page 74 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING FRIEDEL: Right. GURCZAK: Next week, just because were having issues with engineers that were engineering it. And they're trying to -- well, they're trying to require a three-phase electrical for the building which is just unnecessary. So three-phase require a new transformer at a cost of over 100,000. So I'm actually having new engineers re -engineer it so that we don't have to do all that. FRIEDEL: Okay. GURCZAK: And that's really what the delay has been right now. FRIEDEL: So it looks like you'll be doing both of them at the same time? That was my question. GURCZAK: Oh, yeah. It's going to be about the same timing. FRIEDEL: All right. Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman? GURCZAK: Is there any other questions? MCMAHON: Yes, I do. If you don't mind I'm going to ask John., GURCZAK: Okay. MCMAHON: But thank you. WESLEY: I'm a little bit confused by the -- not the recommendation. But it sounds to me like you have density issues, you have parking issues, you have the driveway issues, the alley issues; it looks like he's going to have to combine three lots together before he can build, et cetera. We have the requirement that the change be for the health, safety, and welfare of the community but yet under the staff recommendation it says they have concerns about that? Unless I'm reading it wrong. For these reasons the staff believes the establishment, maintenance, and operation of the proposed use applied for will be detrimental to the public health and safety. So to me that's a contradiction. And if this is going to be too high, too dense, et cetera, for that particular area and it seems to me like you've also said that would prefer to have commercial there, unless I'm reading it wrong then I don't know that it's a really good idea to move forward with this. Also, it sounds to me like the town, if it's going to eventually move forward, if not now, later, Page 75 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING that you want it to be rezoned versus a special use permit. I know I said a mouthful in all that stuff, so if you need me to say it again, I will. But if you can address those concerns I have, I would very much appreciate it. WESLEY: Sure. MCMAHON: Thank you. WESLEY: Yes. Mayor and councilmember, I'll try to keep track of all those and if I miss any 1'11 let you know. So going into the planning and zoning commission meeting and the staff report written at that time, staff was a little bit more concerned about the proposal. And did recommend denial to the P&Z for some of the things that you talked about. We learned some things through the discussion at the P&Z meeting and along the way preparing finally for that, that has brought staff along. So were not as concerned about it as we were. With regard to the overall density. In writing the report and corning up with the number that's on the screen currently, that's taking a very strict approach. And just looking exactly at this land, in actuality some of the parking area adjacent to it probably should be included in the land area going to this because that's what happened in the other commercial. When you do that, you bring it to a more reasonable number, I've forgotten what those numbers were now. I looked at them back before P&Z but it brings it more in line with what you'd expect in the area. Some of the parking concerns that were raised in the previous staff report were addressed by the plat 106 representative who was at the P&Z commission and spoke to some of those concerns and these other plats were better addressed. With regard to the alley, getting that paved, that would be a requirement regardless. That's how they're going to provide access to the driveways. And so that was always something we knew had to be addressed. If he can't do that then the project couldn't happen. Combining the lots is pretty standard. It's an administrative replat process that can be easily done while the building permit is being reviewed and shouldn't hold up the project. That's most of what you said, but maybe not all. I think there may be one or two 1 missed. MCMAHON: Yes, thank you very much. Are you concerned about the density? Because I think on his last project, and I did vote against it because I was concerned that he was putting Page 76 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING so many apartment buildings on such a -- like restaurant slab versus a larger lot and that there wasn't enough community space with apartments for living, et cetera. So also what about the high density of this? Do you have any concerns about that? Do the neighbors have any concerns about that? Do you think this fits in the area where it is? WESLEY: Mayor, councilmember, the neighbors are very excited to see this go residential versus commercial and they hope the rest of it goes residential. Just not seeing more commercial happen here. That reminds me of one of the other things you brought up, that was in the staff's earlier comments. If we could really do it like we would want, we'd take a step back, get these multitude of property owners together addition see if we could have a cohesive plan for how this continues to move forward and see where the uses really fit. Very challenging to do with a number of different property owners that are in the area. So while that would be a desire, it's probably not realistic to hang too much -- or put too much weight on that. MCMAHON: Thank you. I understand that. So the staff is comfortable with moving forward with this? WESLEY: Yes. MCMAHON: Okay. Thank you very much. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilman? SKILLICORN: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Director Wesley, could you go back to a screen that shows like the facia what these units look like. Okay. Thank you. So just a few questions I'll kind of banter with you over. Is this what? 25 feet in height? WESLEY: Yes. SKILLICORN: And how does that compare to the couple of buildings that are to the west? All the same? WESLEY: They are shorter. SKILLICORN: Okay. WESLEY: The two-story one just north of the restaurant would probably be close to 25 feet. The others are single stories, so I would imagine they're more 18 to 20 feet. emEamzewasseslinin Page 77 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING SKILLICORN: Okay. So the one that's basically directly last, that one's single story? I'm looking at an overhead. 1 can't see -- WESLEY: Right. SKILLICORN: -- how tall that is. WESLEY: So let me go back to here then. So single story. Single story. This one's a two- story. This one will be a two-story. SKILLICORN: Okay. So typically this is too high density that I'd like. And I know I've mentioned I've got a test with a special lot or a special project. I don't think this is a special project. It's not like a big sales tax generator or this very -- something that we really want in town. It's not bad. There's nothing wrong with it. But the lot is a little bit special because there hasn't been a lot of activity there. And we probably do have a little too much commercial. But the density gives me pause. And I would personally be willing to accept that that test, that this is a special lot and it needs a SUP or something to make something happen if the density in this project was lower. And I know that the density matters to make it profitable and I completely get that. But I don't think the idea -- and what is the square footage on these units? GURCZAK: About 1,650. SKILLICORN: Okay. And it's a two -car garage per person, or we're talking two people for most of them? WESLEY: Right. The one exception is the end unit is a one -car. But they will have basically the parking right in front. SKILLICORN: Okay. So if this was a little less dense I would be inclined to approve. But because of density -- and density is significantly higher than even -- I think there's even duplexes across the street. It's just too dense for me and again, I like open spaces and stuff. This is not desirable open space though. But I'd like to see something developed here, I just want it to look a little less dense. Thank you so much. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman? GRZYBOWSKI: Oh. Sorry. Just making sure it was me. MAYOR DICKEY: Vice mayor? Page 78 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING GRZYBOWSKI: I don't have a problem with the density. We have a housing problem in Fountain Hills. We have a housing problem at practically every dollar value area. Something like this, because we've got the higher density means, hopefully, the cost will be down further than it would be say, if it was only three. Our restaurants, our shops, cannot hire local employees because they can't afford to live here. We need this kind of housing. We need to be able to accommodate people that want to work and live in town. I am totally for this and I appreciate that yes, this lot's been there forever and we've never been able to coordinate all of the land owners together to try to get something cohesive. So I hate to say this is better than nothing, but that's kind of what I'm saying. But I'm happy with the density. Definitely. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman? KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Yeah. I agree with what the vice mayor said. I think this is -- I'm a big fan of this project. Talking with the neighbors in your reportage, that said that they didn't really want a commercial building there and they would prefer just a nice seven -unit housing unit. We do desperately need this kind of building in Fountain Hills. And particularly, I'm very familiar with that area. Its use will be perfect. It would fit right in like a glove. And I just -- it's a very good project and I'm a hard yes. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman? TOTH: I echo the words from both my fellow Councilwomen here. The project looks nice and it's a development project that's supported by residents in the area which is super exciting. 7's better than 14 as far as density goes. I know I'm oversimplifying the topic here but my point being what was the P&Z recommendation for this? WESLEY: For approval. TOTH: And was that unanimous or -- yeah? With that, I motion to approve? FRIEDEL: Second. MAYOR DICKEY: Hold on. Let me close the hearing. We have a motion and a second to approve. Any further discussion? Thank you. Roll call, please? Page 79 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: No. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Aye. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thank you. Thank you so much for hanging in there. So we're going to go up now to 9B. I'll open this hearing and this is another zoning. Ah, there we go. WESLEY: B or D? I'm sorry? MAYOR DICKEY: B. WESLEY: Mayor and council. Yes, we're here this evening to talk about chapter 7 of the zoning ordinance. It's not quite as exciting as maybe chapter 6 or 9, but 7's a pretty good chapter. It's about parking. So as staffs been taking the opportunity to look at and see where we get some challenges in the administrative applying the ordinance for recognizing problems with the current chapter 7. So we've got a project over a year ago to review it and update it. So we worked with the planning and zoning commission through several meetings to get their input and come to you now with a recommendation from them. So when we started this process we were mostly looking to remove some errors and inconsistencies that were in the current code, to improve the readability and the flow, update some of the standards. If you took the time to read through the current Page 80 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING ordinance, you'd see some regulations repeated in different places which caused confusion. Some things that applied generally that were put in specific sections and so forth. So there were a little bit of challenge from that that we wanted to clean up. As we took the opportunity to review other town ordinances to see how they handled some of their parking situations and then discussed it with the planning and zoning commission, we also recognized that there were some areas that weren't covered by our current ordinance that may be beneficial to the town to include and so we reviewed some of those things with the P&Z commission and they did end up including some of those items that were new or different. So here, just overall, is a outline, present ordinance versus revised ordinance. A slightly changed organizational structure to the code. I'm going to go through each of the sections, review kind of on a high level what the changes are. If there's something specific that we really need to delve into I've got below the formal presentation the actual detailed cross through pieces that we can look at if we need to, but won't go there if there's not a need to. But at any point, as we go through, if you have questions it's probably better to stop and discuss them then rather than try to come back and remember them all at the end. At least that's my opinion. Mayor, if you want to do it differently I guess, let us know. In section 7.01, establishes the purpose for the code. This basically, is kind of like the plan for the section of the code, what are we trying to accomplish with this. So this sets out, again, those basic purpose statements. Mostly, this is just a repeat of what's in the current code, but some things came up again as we were reviewing the code that we then came back and added some wording here in the purpose area. As we came -- as we look at some of the requires paving, wanted to provide a little more flexibility there so added a purpose statement with regard to some of the paving options. But in particular wanted to just make sure we have a safe, efficient, and attractive parking areas. Section 7.02 -- KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Page 81 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING Just very briefly, under the purpose 7.01 you struck alleviate congestion of the public streets. You redlined that? I'm just curious why that redline was included? It seems like a pretty good goal. WESLEY: Yeah. I think it got -- Mayor and councilmember, I think it got moved. I hadn't pulled up the code itself here. Let me do that real quick. I have it in front of me. ARNSON: John, I think it went from the purpose statement to 7.Olc. WESLEY: Yeah, it went down to item c in the list. 5o it just got moved. KALIVIANAKIS: Okay. WESLEY: Is there anything else on -- I'll move on to 7.02, applicability. So this was buried in previous section 7.02 C. We pulled it up and gave it its own full section just about applicability. Basic wording is the same. But we did expand upon some of the wording with regard to how we look at and treat new development versus existing development. So that would be clear moving forward. Obviously, any new development's going to have to meet the requirements of the code but with existing development we'll try to separate it out based on some levels. If you are existing building, you change your use from a retail store to a restaurant. They have completely different parking standards. So that restaurant needs to have enough parking. Buildings have enough parking with it to be the restaurant, so the restaurant go there. If you are expanding your building, we're only going to apply the parking requirements to the expanded portion. We're not going to apply it to the whole building. But if you substantially change a building or have to rebuild it then we would apply the code. So that basically kind of lays out those standards for how we do that in the different scenarios. Questions there? Section 7.03 lays out some general regulations for parking standards. And again, a lot of this was the same. There were some things in here that were duplicates that we removed. Particularly stating what the size of parking spaces would be. We didn't actually change the actual sizes of the parking spaces. We added some flexibility for the town engineer to consider some alternative paving types instead of just concrete or Page 82 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING asphalt. And then added a section with regard to maintenance. While the codes -- the ordinance generally talks about maintenance it didn't have anything specific for parking and as we've seen some parking lots in town become deteriorated with potholes or whatever and we didn't have any tools to address that, so putting the standard in here for maintenance allows us to address that. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman McMahon? MCMAHON: John, I have a question. I think it's after surfacing and then it goes to B. Then you hve D and then you have the old C too. It said it's unlawful to reduce the amount of existing parking below the minimum amount of type parking and spaces required by this section. Is that in another section? WESLEY: Yep. That got moved up into applicability and rewritten. MCMAHON: Okay. So it's still applicable then? WESLEY: Yes. MCMAHON: It's just in a different section? WESLEY: Right. So this 7.02C got moved into its own 7.02. MCMAHON: Oh, okay. All right. Oh, okay. Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman? KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. I'll be going that same section, section B. It calls for, I guess, by right, asphalted concrete, concrete pavers, bricks or cement. I guess all of the material to be determined by the town engineer. And I guess, I was just thinking, could we add stone and cobblestones to that section right there? That that would be also an acceptable material to build these driveways with? WESLEY: 1 see the town engineer nodding yes. KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah, those are pretty common materials. And instead of having to go to the town engineer we could just approve them right now in the code. I think that would be a better version. Thank you. WESLEY: Thank you. Going on. At 7.03. Submittal requirements. This is moved from section 7.02, with just Page 83 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING some minor changes. Kept the same standards in for parking garages and access. Requirements for location of driveways. So there's a long list of standards for where a driveway can be placed in relationship to other types of streets and intersections and so forth. This was tucked in the residential driving piece, residential standards before. It wouldn't really apply to all types of driveway, so we moved it to this location. And added a provision in here that gives the town engineer again, a little bit of flexibility. We have the specific standards which generally work but sometimes may not, so we added, again, some flexibility for town engineer to review a specific situation and make adjustments if necessary. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman? MCMAHON: Question. 7.04 C, covered parking. I hope this isn't a stupid question. WESLEY: I'm still in 7.03. MCMAHON: Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were in 7.04. I apologize. WESLEY: Okay. Yeah. Okay. And here is just a general comparison of some of the changes. We went through all the graphics and updated them. You can see the one on the left it was out of the code. It's been copied so many times it's kind of hard to read. So we had them all redone and upgraded. Now, we're in 7.04. So again we kept -- so before we had a section that covered all design standards, with A for residential and a B for everything else. We divided then now into two sections. So it's a little bit cleaner and clearer about the different standards. So 7.04 now just deals with the residential up to four units on an acre or four units on a lot. And so most of the standards are the same in here. We did make a few changes. One of which is to require a minimum of two covered parking spaces per unit. And so most houses do get built with a two -car garage and that's your two covered parking spaces. It doesn't mean you have to park in the garage, but an impact of putting the standard in here is if you decided to convert your two -car garage into a living space or close it off so it's no longer providing you two covered parking spaces you'd have to provide two covered parking spaces someplace else on your lot which sometimes a lot of situations would be a challenge. Page 84 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MAYOR DICKEY: Vice mayor? GRZYBOWSKI: I appreciate that concept that we'd like to limit garage conversions. I appreciate that. However, again, with our price of housing -- while I would never buy a house that didn't have covered parking, there may be people out there that would like to build a house without covered parking. I kind of don't have a problem with it. So I feel it's kind of snooty of us to require covered parking whether it be a garage or carport or whatever. Again, I understand the concept and I watch the median and I've read the notes and I just think it's very snooty of us to say you got to have a garage. KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Yeah. I had redlined your redline on that one. I agree 100 percent with the vice mayor. I don't see why we have to mandate this. If they want to have a covered garage, let them. If they don't, they don't. I don't know why we're getting involved in this. And yeah, if I were going to do an amendment, which I would right now on 7.03 as far as the materials, I'd like to include this requirement to be stricken. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilman? SKILLICORN: Madam Mayor, Director Wesley, give us the background of this particular role. I'm not saying I'm against it. But I want to honor their request and see what your thoughts are and I'm sure it's not -- your grandfathered in if you already have a property without. And I have a feeling then intent's more about people not converting garages into living space but share with us the intent behind it. WESLEY: Mayor, councilmember, so the main intent is maintaining or establishing a certain level of quality. Homes with garages typically are higher value, higher quality. And oftentimes when you enclose that garage, it's not necessarily the most attractive streetscape appearance at that point. And so that's the basic reasons for it. SKILLICORN: And a carport is covered also. So it's not necessarily a garage. WESLEY: Right. SKILLICORN: Other municipalities, do they require this nowadays? WESLEY: A few do. It's been long enough now, councilmember that I've looked at that. I don't remember what numbers, I looked at half a dozen or so different ordinances and Page 85 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING I can't remember how many had it, but at least one did that we pulled that idea from. SKILLICORN: Okay. I'm thinking about a new construction permit has that. This is not a hill I would die on but I don't mind keeping it in. So I don't know if there's four votes that want to remove it. FRIEDEL: Question for you. Most HOA's I think require covered parking. Not all, but I think a lot of them do, at least up in our area. WESLEY: Food for thought. GRZYBOWSKI: Well, and that's an HOA thing. If you have a garage, you're expected to park in your garage. You're not allowed to park on a street in a couple of our areas. Which is fine. But again, I feel like it's very snooty of us, whether you're talking carport or you're talking a garage, it is snooty. I don't know what other word to use other than snooty. MCMAHON: I think it's fine, the requirement. I understand why you want it to aesthetic purposes and all the other reasons you stated. And here's my -- basically, might be an ignorant question. Number C, it says covered parking. A minimum of two covered parking spaces shall be provided per unit. So is that in the development, in the planning stage? There's no maximum number for that? I mean that's the normal amount per unit, right? WESLEY: Yes. Mayor, councilmember, the zoning ordinance requires two parking spaces per residential unit for a single family. For multi -residence, studios and one - bedrooms requires 1.75 and above that requires 2 but they also require a quarter of a space for guest parking. So basically everything works out to at least two. And so those two spaces would need to be covered. MCMAHON: Okay. So-- WESLEY: That's what I'm going to say, you can have more above that, there wouldn't be -- MCMAHON: Okay. Thank you. So if it's required and you're being consistent in the code about having covered spaces. WESLEY: So later when we get down to 7.06 and talking about the required spaces, it's Page 86 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING going to tell you have to have two. There it doesn't tell you if they're covered or not. This is what establishes them being covered. MCMAHON: Okay. Thank you very much. So how do we adjust the -- when we vote on this, do we need to -- how do we address this? Whether for or against the covered spaces. MAYOR DICKEY: Well, at this point, so I'd like to leave it the way it is. So I don't think, I'm not sure, but in looking and I'm not sure that there's support for changing this. But I think the surface one, I think that's just something that's understood. Would that be -- unless we start getting in any more nitty-gritty. ARNSON: No, we don't want to do that. It looks, we got general consensus to add the cobblestone, 7.03B. I'm not getting consensus for eliminating 7.04C. So if that's -- I'm getting a bunch of head nods. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. ARNSON: Okay. So we just -- MAYOR DICKEY: And was it cobblestone? Was there something else, Brenda? KALIVIANAKIS: Stone and cobblestone. MAYOR DICKEY: lust stone and cobblestone. ARNSON: Stone and cobblestone. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Yeah, I don't think we need amendments for that. WESLEY: Okay. The other item in 7.04 that we have is, adding a provision that would allow for tandem parking, which is a car parked behind another car. When you've met your parking requirement, if you have excess and you want to do tandem, then that would be allowed in the situation. And that's it for basically the single family, up to four-plex. So moving into multiresidence and nonresidential uses. Again, most of the provisions are the same. We did again add a requirement for covered parking for multiresidence and then also for offices if you have got ten or more office suites in a building then provide one covered space per office. Again, to provide a little bit higher level of quality for residents and occupants of these buildings. Page 87 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING We also added a provision that when you've got a larger parking field, so that you have kind of a main drive to not have parking spaces that would back out right in that area close to the curb or have another main drive aisle that connects too close. Establish a minimum 30 foot distance. That's far traffic safety as cars are making those different turning movements so they can clearly see each other and make those movements safely. And one other change here too is, it's not clear on the current ordinance but we want to make it clear that when you have drive aisle with no parking spaces on either side that that can be as narrow as 20 feet. Otherwise, in section 7.05 we consolidated all the landscape standards that were spread in two different places. The width and number of driveways was not changed substantially. Screening, lighting, handicapped parking spaces. Tandem parking was already provided but we clarified it just a little bit. So those were the changes that occurred in 7.05. In the we get into 7.06 which is the schedule of required off-street parking spaces. We have a provision in our TCCD zoning district, town center development, that allows for calculations of shared parking for mixed use. We thought that that could be beneficial. In other mixed uses we start to see it around the town. So we made reference to those shared parking calculations could be used for other mixed use developments. We clarified some language regarding parking in the common commercial zoning district. Clarified that if you got a business that has a lot of vehicles that are part of your business that those spaces that are for your commercial vehicles are different than the spaces you need by code for customers and employees. Added to provision 4, a maximum number of paved parking space. So the table that follows sets the minimum number and historically, some commercial establishments have said I've got all this land, I'm just going to pave everything that's not got a building on it, and made these big parking lots that mostly don't get used. And so this establishes that a maximum amount of parking so that we don't get too much of that overbuilt parking area. Page 88 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING The parking tables themselves were totally revised. Mostly looking at the standards in terms of something that was more workable or enforceable. We had a number of the standards, for example, were based on number of employees. And that can fluctuate so much, we got rid of all those and tried to put in standards that were a lot more measurable, easier to use. We looked at both national standards and what other Valley cities were using and compared them to our own code. So for most of them it's hard to draw a direct comparison of what the standard was and what it will be. But certainly any existing businesses is fine where it's at. We think the standards are pretty much the same as you would work them out. But it would be very difficult to go through and say exactly what the difference would be. So I have the full table here. I don't plan on talking about any of them. I will just kind of click the button here slowly. If somebody has something that they notice as they look at it that they want to talk about what the standards would be, we can certainly stop and look at them. We tried to come together with some classifications of uses that we think will serve the town well going into the future as we try to look at maybe redoing the zoning ordinance in terms of use categories versus individual list of uses. This section also includes off-street loading provisions. We talked about some amendments here that would provide a little bit more of a guest loading spaces for drop-offs and different types of uses. As you see maybe more Ubers and Lyfts or more rideshare kind of things. There was a need for more of those kind of loading provisions. The commission determined that what we have covered that adequately so there weren't any changes there. We did add a provision to require some minimal bicycle parking spaces. If you've got more than 20 vehicle spaces then we start looking at need for 1 bicycle parking space per 10 vehicle spaces up to a maximum of 20 bicycle spaces. And then we also added a provision to begin getting people to think about electric vehicle parking. Simply requires that in their construction process they look at what capacity would be needed in their electrical service so that if they were to add some electrical vehicle spaces that would already be sized for that use because it would be Page 89 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING very expensive to come back and do it later. And in their construction to show where they had the raceway and where they would anticipate putting those electric vehicle spaces. And get that basic infrastructure understood upfront. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman? KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Yeah, when I found this one in our agenda packet I wasn't too impressed. I would like to get rid of both, sections I and sections J. We're not talking about municipal parking lots. We're talking about private parking lots, correct? WESLEY: Yes. KALIVIANAKIS: And so were adding a burden to anybody what wants to open up a business, a mall, a strip mall, whatever, of making them the private sector accommodate bicycles. Which they might want to do because they might want to attract that have bikes and then, again, when we invented the internal combustion engine they built gas stations to service the electrical and power needs and I don't see why adding this burden onto a private developer to start putting infrastructure for electric cars is any of our business. I just think that should just come out. That's wrong. I think that the private sector is going to have to deal with electric cars in the future and I don't think it's our job to mandate them building charging stations on private property. It's ridiculous on its face. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman? TOTH: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I do echo what Councilwoman Kaliviana kis mentioned. My only hesitation would be taking out the 1.2 which would be the design requirements for the bicycle parking facility is what we're calling it, bicycle parking facility. Only because I would want to leave in there that if you are building a bicycle parking facility that it should be in a high activity area, highly visible, active, well -lit, without interfering with pedestrian movements. I hesitate to remove that part of the language. The requirement itself, 1 would agree with removing the requirement and I would echo that same idea when it comes to J. Of removing 11 and the exception, since there doesn't need to be an exception to a rule if Page 90 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING we don't pass it. But to keep, I believe, keep 12, to keep a standard for if that were to be built. Now, with that I'm not making a motion or anything yet, I do want to hear, John, your input on that if that would provide clarity. If that is making it more confusing because I'm keeping part and not the whole. WESLEY: Let me read just as little bit here and think and I'll give you a response in a second. TOTH: That's all right. Thank you. WESLEY: So with regard to the first one on the bicycle parking, I think we could do that fairly easily by just getting rid of that first one and then simply saying if you are providing bicycle parking here are some basic standards to deal with that. I think that would be very doable if that was the direction of the council. On the other one, it was very complicated. The commission looked at several different options for how we might handle this particular item. And I guess my feeling there is 2 by itself in this case really doesn't really do that much for us. If you're not doing 1, you might as well just get rid of the whole thing. TOTH: Okay. Thank you, John. My personal opinion would be to agree with Councilwoman Kalivianakis that requiring it, I feel a little iffy about that. If it's best that we not leave in part of that language to give guidance for when they do build it then in that case I believe that I would -- I'd be voting to approve the parking and loading requirements with the removal of -- what are we at? 7.06I 1 and 7.06 J. WESLEY: In addition of cobble and stone? TOTH: In addition of the previous direction, yes. Thank you. MCMAHON: Can I talk? MAYOR DICKEY: Yes. MCMAHON: John, I hear what you're saying Brenda and Hannah. However, being on the board of the Valley Metro. Valley Metro Transit is going all electric for clean air purposes. In fact, there will be a luncheon with awards given out about the success of their clean air. The fact of the matter is many car dealers are going to electric vehicles. In fact, were not in California but I think by the year 2035 or something, they're not Page 91 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING going to -- right now they're saying they're not going to have gas. I think it's very much a convenience and convenient for, and a simple thing, for new developments to have access to provide their customers with electric charging stations. We're pretty far out here and when people come out they are going to need to have more than the two spaces up here at the community center to charge their vehicles especially when we have the art show, et cetera. As far as cycling, I would like to keep that in. We are a community where there's a lot of cyclists, there's a lot of hikers, et cetera. I don't think it's an inconvenience to require that. I think it says a lot about our community and forward thinking about the environment, air quality, et cetera. So I am more inclined to keep those in versus taking them out. Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilman? FRIEDEL: I would agree that they be removed and let me tell you why. I think the private sector and competitive market forces dictate what happens on private property. And if a developer wants to put them in, he can make arrangements to do that at his own option. We don't need to be telling him what to do. And secondly as far as biking, I do a lot of biking in this community. I've never seen anybody take a bike up to Safeway or Fry's or Bashers or any other store in this town. Or even any of the strip malls. I see competitive cyclists on the weekends, they'll stop at the Circle K and they'll refuel and then they'll go on about their way. We don't have people that ride bikes to the grocery stores and other things. So I would be for removing that too. And again, if they want to design it, they have the option to do it, that's up to them. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilman? SKILLICORN: Madam Mayor. Director Wesley, I've been waiting all night to tell people I rode my electric scooter here. No, I want the record to reflect that. I have to concur. We'll take this out and let the private sector-- they want to have that, more power to them. That's fine. And they probably will be building with it but we don't need to require it. Page 92 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman? Vice mayor? GRZYBOWSKI: It's okay. Regarding bikes. The reason why nobody rides their bike to the store or wherever now is because there's no place to lock your bike up. I'm pretty sure that I have the only official bike -- no, there's a couple of bike racks on the Avenue now. There's minimal number of bike racks in this town. I have had a number of people ask me where they can find them and why don't we have them. But I can assure you if you build it -- God, I hated that movie. But if you build it, they may ride their bike. Regarding the EV charging. I appreciate the comments and I don't care if we remove it. But I feel like if it's -- I feel like most areas are going to that in their ordinances now. You can correct me if you looked into that. But the reason why I think it's beneficial on the front end is because there's less disruption when they want to add them later. Went to my doctor's office and this massive area is closed because they decided they needed to added two or three EV chargings upfront and that disrupts the handicapped parking. That disrupts all sorts of stuff. So I feel like if we ask them to install it for future use, we're not telling them that they have to hook it up now. We're just asking them to run the electric for it. But the bike spaces, I feel like that is a solid. We have to put it in there. We want to be a walkable community and our walking paths don't connect anywhere. So let's be a biking community where they can bike. Our biking lanes are getting so much better and so much more well marked and then they can get somewhere and park their bike and go to the store or maybe go have a beer and then go home or whatever. But I feel like we cannot remove the bike parking spaces at all. I feel like that needs to stay in. MAYOR DICKEY: I have a question about providing electrical capacity. What does that actually mean and do you know what it would mean in cost or what is it? WESLEY: So Mayor, I can only speak briefly about it because it gets beyond my technical expertise. But as you design and build any building and you plan for that electrical load that's going to go on, you put in your electrical panels, there's a lot of cost involved there. And so if later, you're going to add electric vehicle charging, it's quite an expense to upgrade that panel to that larger load. So that is, if you consider that load upfront, so Page 93 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING it reduces the overall cost to provide it earlier. It's just getting that capacity built into the electric panel. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. 5o then you're not putting -- WESLEY: But the cost, I cannot tell you anything about that exact cost. MAYOR DICKEY: You're not doing anything external, whatever. You're just ready in case. So I mean, again, I think I would prefer keeping them both but I think it's -- we keep talking about the private sector although we're going through this one by one making requirements on everybody but also just because this is sort of environmental it's all about the private sector. So it's kind of -- anyway. I'd like to keep it but it sounds like most people don't; is that correct? Okay. We don't have to vote on that. ARNSON: Well, I guess the only point of clarification that remains is, we were talking about keeping in 7.06 11. Are we keeping -- MCMAHON: 12. ARNSON: Or 12, excuse me. Are we leaving that one in and striking everything else from I and J? Or are we just striking everything from I and everything from J? That's the only real point of clarification. MCMAHON: John, could you put that slide back up, please? WESLEY: Which -- let's see. The slide about the parking? What were just now talking about? That's actually way down here. Went too far. Went too far. Yeah. So there is electric vehicle and there's the bicycle parking. MAYOR DICKEY: So Hannah, what you had said was to take which one of those two out? The 7 or the 11 or the 1 2? TOTH: It would be I 1 that's removed, because that's a requirement and then 12 has that guidance on what to do if you do have one. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. WESLEY: So Mayor, to implement that, there will probably be some other slight wording changes to make the statement flow. But we understand what the direction would be. Page 90 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING KALIVIANAKIS: If I may? It's just a little confusing because under 2, if we keep that, it's referring to required bicycle parking facilities but there's no required bike. So you're going to-- WESLEY: That will be part of the minor wording changes. KALIVIANAKIS: You're going to clean that up? Okay. WESLEY: If bicycle parking is provided, here are the standards. KALIVIANAKIS: Okay. Perfect. Thank you. ARNSON: So it sounds like the consensus is remove 7.06 11. Remove 7.06 J. MAYOR DICKEY: Yes. ARNSON: Thank you. TOTH: Do we still need a motion to approve the rest of it? ARNSON: No. Unless he has more -- unless John has more. WESLEY: No. I'm at the end. But this is a public hearing so I'll -- KALIVIANAKIS: How about a motion to approve -- MAYOR DICKEY: Wait. We have to see if we have any cards because it's a hearing right now. MENDENHALL: No, Mayor, we don't have any cards. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. SKILLICORN: And Mayor, I do have a question for Director Wesley. MAYOR DICKEY: That's okay. SKILLICORN: A while back we talked about -- so in our parking lots we have a little bit of urban camping going on in cars in our parking lots. And if we're going to go through this I kind of wonder about amending and adding it. But where would we stick something like that? A prohibition on residing in a vehicle in one of those lots? WESLEY: Mayor, councilmember, given some thought to that to try to figure out how to do that and so far I haven't come up with a very good solution to that. If a property owner is allowing it and it's not really getting hooked up to utilities or in a way really becoming a formal place somebody's residing, there's some challenges there. If it stays in one spot for too long, doesn't get moved, then we could call it storage and you'd have Page 95 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING to screen it. But then you just move it a couple of spaces every once in a while. So we're trying to think of a way to get -- SKILLICORN: I mean, I think like overnight and residing or habitating pretty clearly defines it. And it is a necessary to go on and I just -- I know we spoke about it but this is the opportunity to stick something like that in. Now, we can put something like that in and if we don't like the way it flows, then we can amend it later but I think it would be a good idea to put it in. MCMAHON: Can I talk? MAYOR DICKEY: Yes, Councilwoman? MCMAHON: We're talking about private property right? WESLEY: Yes. MCMAHON: 5o we really can't regulate that on private property. Also we've already addressed that with the camping and things like that. That's a completely different issue than what I believe what you're trying to accomplish here with this particular ordinance. So I'm not writing that in at all. GRZYBOWSKI: Track 208 does have a rule or whatever it's called at that level where there is no overnight parking. And because we, as a council have been approving the multi -use, what they're having the residents do is come and apply for what I'm calling a permit. I don't know what they call it. That way they can track the ones that are there overnight. And there's a lot of tattletales and my husband and Betsy all get the emails whenever somebody's there overnight. So I know track 208 has something that they work on and enforce regularly. MAYOR DICKEY: Yes, Councilman? SKILLICORN: And I understand there's certainly businesses that, the automotive business people drop off their cars or something like that. But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about specifically residing and I think we've all heard the stories of one of the parking lots south of Shea that has a lot of this going on. I think it's a prime time to address it and I just don't know where we want to stick that in. I mean, we do have the ability to regulate that kind of parking. Obviously, we don't want to ban ..,,.... ....,... .... x.,,....,.,..,._.,........,._...:.... Page 96 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING all overnight because we want to be able -- someone needs to drop off their car to get their car worked on, we want that. But this is different. These are nonresidents. They're coming in, residing, and -- MAYOR DICKEY: We don't know that. This is -- you just finished saying that private people are smart enough to put electric in if they want or put bike lanes in if they want, but now they're not smart enough to decide what they want to do with their own parking lots because somebody is sleeping? If they're allowing it, they're allowing it. They don't have to allow it. SKILLICORN: But it doesn't have to be a detriment to the rest of the town. So that would be a requirement of mine to pass this and I'll need an amendment for that. MCMAHON: Again, I don't think that that has a place here in this particular parking ordinance. I think as far as town goes on our property, we already have no overnight parking and all of that. I just don't think it's applicable. I don't see how you're going to be able to enforce it. MAYOR DICKEY: And while we're at it, why don't we talk about cars that are parked with ads on them and such. This is not what this is for and I don't think anybody in the public would have expected us to be having this discussion about this at this time. So I don't know -- SKILLICORN: Madam Mayor, actually that's something that we could talk about but during the, like, the sign. I think it's appropriate. Are we looking for a motion before we close the meeting or close the hearing or no? MAYOR DICKEY: Well, at that -- no, it's fine that the hearing is closed. But that just means no more public comments. So it's -- I guess, if there was people who wanted to comment on this particular aspect of it, they wouldn't be able to now, because we have a motion. I guess, Aaron, we haven't been doing amendments or that kind of thing until now, but I guess if you want to see if you're getting some kind of a consensus? ARNSON: Right. Well, if there is support for it, let's talk about it. MAYOR DICKEY: Support for -- ARNSON: But I haven't heard any. Page 97 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING SKILLICORN: Has there been a motion yet? ARNSON: No. KALIVIANAKIS: I think -- MAYOR DICKEY: 1 thought there was a motion on the -- and I stopped you real quick. There was a motion but I said wait, wait, wait. And then I closed the hearing. SKILLICORN: Has the motion been seconded? MAYOR DICKEY: Yes. For the -- GOODWIN: I only have that -- I have that Councilmember Toth made the motion. And then you mentioned there's no speaker cards and then Allen wanted his comment out before a second. GRZYBOWSKI: Yeah. MAYOR DICKEY: It never had a second? So is there a second for Hannah's motion? GRZYBOWSKI: So as I understand it, the motion was to approve as written, adding the stones and the cobblestones and removing 7.06 I 1 and 7.06 J. ARNSON: Yes. GRZYBOWSKI: Second. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. So now would be the time for an amendment. SKILLICORN: I'd like to make a motion to amend as to add a ban on habitating (sic) in a car overnight in a publicly accessible parking lot. ARNSON: Okay. So we would need a second. TOTH: Am I allowed to ask a question before I -- ARNSON: Yeah. TOTH: Okay. Aaron is that raising any red flags for you? ARNSON: My preference, I'll be honest with you. Since I don't know what the language would look like. My preference if it's the direction of council would be to continue to explore it because as I sit here today, I don't know what the language is going to say nor do I know what the repercussions are going to be. TOTH: Okay. Page 98 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING ARNSON: So I would prefer that we not do it. But if you want to make the -- if you want to second it and see where it goes, that's fine and we can tinker with it and see. TOTH: I would rather we explore it and vote on this part and then maybe bring it back later once we have more info. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. So we have a motion and a second. Roll call, please? MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: Permission to explain my vote? So without some basic protections for our residents, and some prohibition of people camping in these lots, I've got to be a no. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: And just so I know what I'm voting on, this is going to be the motion with the amendments that the vice mayor added? Okay. GRZYBOWSKI: Yes. KALIVIANAKIS: Then I would be an aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thank you. Our next item is I think our chief is going to probably present. Is that correct? GOODWIN: Correct. MAYOR DICKEY: All right. It's about our IGA with the City of Mesa for the MRDC. OTT: Good evening. How's everybody? Page 99 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MAYOR DICKEY: Hungry. OTT: All right. MAYOR DICKEY: Starving. OTT: We've got pizza coming. 5o the item we have is the intergovernmental agreement with the City of Mesa for being dispatched by Mesa Regional Dispatch Center. This is kind of part 1 of part 2 for the dispatch side of it. I did not bring my wagon wheel slides that I've showed you before that showed the relationship between the MRDC and the TRWC. So we applied for dispatch through the City of Mesa back in November and through a few working groups in getting it through the Mesa City Manager's office. Finally in August, we were approved for dispatch by the City of Mesa. So it's been kind of a long drawn out process to get to this point. Part of this is the IGA which will allow them to dispatch us. That will be the agreement between the town and the City of Mesa for that part of it. As I mentioned, the second part of that is the membership in the TRWC, which is the Topaz Regional Wireless Co-op in Phoenix. It's a consortium. So we went through, looked at what our options were. Our best option is being dispatched by Mesa. It puts us in the group that we kind of align with, with the East Valley cities. It puts us in alignment with the East Valley fire department on this side. We're right on the border of dispatch between the Phoenix Regional Dispatch center and the Mesa Regional Dispatch Center. Phoenix is a much better fit for us. It's a little bit less expensive as we do it. I imagine it's a -- we're looking at about roughly $190,000 a year. Part of that cost is the price per call that we pay, which is roughly 10 to 15 percent lower than what Phoenix would have been. There are also some other infrastructure cost in there. The price per call would be billed on a monthly basis. We've got some computer -aided dispatch terminals, some MDTs, mobile data terminals. There's a fee for that. That's a quarterly fee as we move into the TRWC membership. The TRWC actually manages the infrastructure for the dispatch side of things. So there'll be roughly a 65,000 to $70,000 Page 100 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING a year cost through the TRWC as well. But that brings us down to really state of the art dispatch, which we did not experience before. It has a better level of safety ingrained into it for everybody that's involved with it. This is one IGA with the City of Mesa. We'II be bringing by two more. One will be for vehicle maintenance. One will be for just a letter of agreement for radio maintenance. We'll have the TRWC IGA that we'll be bringing back and then we'll also be bringing an IGA with mutual aid agreement with the ?City of Scottsdale. So this is kind of the first one. We're trying to get it all Tined up before you went on summer break so that we can kind of keep things moving on that. The way that the wheels moved to get there we did not have that prior to that, so if you've looked at any of the agendas it's kind of been moving. The TRWC, I was hoping to be able to bring tonight as well. It's up for the vote for the executive board and the executive board only meets every third month and they haven't been able to get a quorum. So we're on the agenda for November. So hopefully I'll have that for you. It's kind of cutting it close but there's no opposition for the membership in the TRWC. So with that, if there's any questions I'll be glad to -- GOODWIN: Chief, I just had one clarification. It's late and it's possible that I may have misheard you. I wanted you to clarify that the Mesa Regional Dispatch is less expensive and provides better service to us than the Phoenix one; is that correct? OTT: And if I finish that thought in my head, yes. GOODWIN: Okay. OTT: That is correct. GOODWIN: I just wanted to make -- I may have misheard you but I just wanted to clarify. Thank you. OTT: It's a better fit. It's less expensive, kind of all the way around on the Mesa side than the Phoenix side and Phoenix had a lower resistance to wanting to add to their dispatch center. And if you look at it, they have the bulk of the departments in the Valley. There's 23 or 24 departments that are dispatched by Phoenix, opposed to 7 that are dispatched by Mesa. So that's kind of -- again, it's a better fit for us. It's a better ,v�..®.....®..m...«..�.» ....„.... , ,.. ,.e,.:„,,.a... ...................m. Page 101 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING price point for us on that side of the public safety aspect. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilman? SKILLICORN: Madam Mayor, Chief. One question about ambulance calls. Do we have an opportunity to bill our ambulance service for the calls or are we just going to pay for that just like it was a fire call? OTT: On the ambulance side of it, we've got a RFP for ambulance service. And those contract come in for review the 28th of this month. Typically with going with a private ambulance company opposed to a municipal department, the ambulance portion of that, we've got some language in there that we would be able to bill for things like having our fire department paramedic ride in with the ambulance company because they'll bill back the insurance company for that. SKILLICORN: Um -hum. OTT: We also have some liquidated damages in there if they can't meet our response time that we set up in the contract. But as far as billing for that call, with a private ambulance company that's not really an option for us. If we were to move forward with our own municipal ambulance department, our ambulance portion of the fire department, we would be in control of that. SKILLICORN: Okay. So that's an additional disadvantage because currently because the ambulance is a profit setter the call would be not a big deal but we're going to basically be subsidizing our ambulance provider in the future with these calls. So okay. You answered that. I will vote for this because we are basically stuck with this. We have to have it. But I do want to make a note that I still believe that prematurely leaving Rural Metro, is going to be more expensive than the alternative and probably in the long run it's a mistake, but we don't have a choice. That ship has sailed. So I will be approving this. MAYOR DICKEY: Dave would you like to talk a little bit more about that ambulance, please? I think it was misunderstanding. OTT: Yeah. Currently, the municipal department will not have the ambulance service. It will be -- when I say contracted it's not a dollar amount that we'll be paying the Page 102 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING ambulance company that gets awarded the bid. It's really a contract for the service that they'll provide us. We can outline some things in there and Rob Derman, our procurement officer wrote a very good RFP that went out to the ambulance companies. We're stuck in a little bit of a disadvantage in that there's really only two companies that have the certificate and necessity to provide ambulance service in this area. And when I say two, GMR owns four companies that have the CON capabilities and then Maricopa Ambulance is another private ambulance company as part of that. 50 our pool for getting ambulance companies to kind of pick up our bid is relatively small. And things that were in the bid or the RFP are some things that are typical and that would be condition of the ambulances so that we're not stuck with a 20-year old ambulance that's got a million miles on it. That we're getting newer equipment. That they have equipment that's compatible with the equipment that we have for our heart monitors, for our electronic patient care reporting forms and those types of things. We also wrote some things in there for liquidated damages if they can't meet the code 3 response time. If they can't meet the code 2 response time. They do have some flexibility to run their own business. There are some things that they would also subsidize us on. As I mentioned, if we have a paramedic that rides into the hospital on that call, they'll end up billing the insurance company. We would get that money back from them. So really when you have a private ambulance company providing your services, those are the money generators for you as a municipality, is liquidated damages for them not being able to meet their contractual response times. Also billing for any other services that we provide them that they would then in turn bill the insurance companies. 5o I don't know if that kind of gets us where we're going? Our option would be, as many other Valley departments have done, they've started their own ambulance service. It's going to be an increased cost but it might be a cost benefit in the future. There's something that we need to put in place to be able to do that. But that's always an option for us moving forward. And part of that is driven by the lack of response from the private ambulance companies and part of that might also be because there's such a Page 103 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING monopoly for one of the bigger players in the game. MAYOR DICKEY: All right. We're not subsidizing anything. We're just not -- it's not going to be an income generator for us unless, except if we bring paramedics in or they don't meet the contract. But we're not subsidizing anything. OTT: Right. MAYOR DICKEY: The only thing -- if the ambulances are staged at our stations will we get anything? OTT: Well, the overall thought was that we were not going to put the private ambulance company that was not tied to the fire contract into the fire stations. MAYOR DICKEY: That's what I thought. I was remembering. Do you know where you think they would stage? OTT: There's a little bit of retail space available -- MAYOR DICKEY: He's looking at Amanda. Okay. Well, just so it's clear that, you know, it's just -- and some of the cities that are just turning in to doing their own ambulances services it's a big deal, it's a big thing to take on but eventually it is a money maker. But we're not giving money to the ambulance companies? OTT: Correct. And as far as the calls go, if you called 911 and it generates a call for an ambulance that cost of dispatching that ambulance is billed into our call because it's really our responsibility to provide the level of service for our community. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman Toth? TOTH: Councilmember Kalivianakis can go first. I was just going to move. KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you. Yeah, I just wanted to kind of state what Allen just stated. As a candidate for this job I was against departing from Rural Metro. I'm going to vote for this tonight and probably going to rubberstamp all the rest of what it's going to take to this Fountain Hills fire department going. But I concur with my colleague. I think for making the mistake that eventually years later might come back to haunt us. And so I just want people don't -- even though I'm voting for this, it's with great reservation. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman? Page 104 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING TOTH: Chief Ott, I want to thank you for being wonderful. I mean, the amount of information that you're able to provide on this topic is absolutely astounding. And it's dear how much you care about this town. It's clear that we're in good hands with you. So I just wanted to start off by thanking you and then with that, motion to approve the IGA with the City of Mesa for fire dispatch services through MRDC. SKILLICORN: Second. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. And I just want to say that we went through obviously a assessment that was a professional assessment with a lot of information and between that and what Chief Ott has been able to do, and saying Chief Ott Fountain Hills Fire is what this is all about. And to say that you have a feeling it's going to end up being worse off when we have all the facts and figures, studies, modeling that it will not be is not a really good accurate thing to say because you're just -- you are imagining that will happen when you have no basis to say that at all. And he is our -- are you are first fire -- Fountain Hills fire staffer right now? OTT: I am. MAYOR DICKEY: Well, there you go. OTT: Department of one. MAYOR DICKEY: And he has one place that he's working for and that's the Town of Fountain Hills. So we have a motion and a second. Can we have a roll call? MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis? Page 105 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. OTT: Thank you. If I could add one thing? I know it's late and I don't want to draw this out anymore. However, one of the things that we looked at and one of the decisions that was a driving force in canceling the contract was the stability of Rural Metro and they are currently up for sale again. Which will -- in the last, I think 11 or 12 years will about the fifth time that they've been sold. And there's some concerns about that. They are also looking at eliminating ambulance services out of the fire portion of the contract or the services that they provide at this point. So that was a driving force was some of the stability behind the company. So I would like to think that it's my job to keep us within the boundaries of what you've kind of given me to take as the direction in a number of areas. I hope that you will think that maybe your thoughts tonight were a little premature and that we're really a strong municipal department. FRIEDEL: Chief Ott, I want to thank you for what you've done to spearhead this for the town and I think being proactive in this case is going to prove to be wisdom down the road. So thank you. OTT: Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: Not to mention we wouldn't have had any mutual aid. Hi Justin. We're ready to talk about purchasing HVACs. Or maybe not purchasing them but -- yeah, it is. Purchasing agreement. Thank you. WELDY: Madam Mayor, councilmembers, I appreciate the opportunity to be tonight's last speaker. I'm going to take a minute here to give thanks where thanks is due. Oftentimes we don't have an opportunity to do that. I will say without doubt that the current facility staff we have, including the supervisor and the two plant mechanics are second to none and we are very lucky and fortunate to have them. As a result of these Page 106 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING talented individuals we have discovered an incredible amount of previously unknown information about our facilities and a lot of that is related to the heating ventilation and air conditioning. You'll note in my staff report that I never called anybody out but the previous vendor that had taken care of this, in these professionals' opinions that work for us, had become complacent and we had several issues that were simply not being addressed. Being a little bit concerned and working with the town manager as the selection process was moving forward to eventually replace the previous one, we entered into agreements for smaller dollar thresholds. You'll note that this is a fourth amendment to a contract in a short period of time. The primary reason behind that is we did not want to get locked in and create challenges, not only for the town manager but staff in this elected body should we not decide to proceed. We have gained incredible confidence in this organization through the due diligence of the staff. And we are now coming back to ask for a much larger amount of money. The basis maintenance just to care for what we have, keep it oiled and operating, is just about $50,000. The balance of the money that were asking for is to cover some equipment that we feel is either likely going to need to be rebuilt or simply fail. This equipment not only cools the town hall but the community center and the library. I'll give you an example. We had a short outage for just a very short period of time during the hottest part of the year most recently that created very uncomfortable conditions not only for our visitors but our staff. So as you're considering this, keep in mind, we do not intend to spend any of the owner's allowances, how I'll refer to it, above the contract unless it absolutely necessary. But at the same time, when we have one of these failures we have very little time to react and supply chains are still quite challenging. I'm simply asking that you trust and allow the town manager and I to make that decision with this amount of money above and beyond this contract to do what's right for the town hall campus, the residents that utilize these facilities, and obviously the staff that's in it for a reasonable Page 107 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING amount of time day and night. With that, I'll answer any questions to the best of my ability. MCMAHON: I'd like to make a motion to approve amendment number four to co-op purchasing agreement 2022-062 with Mesa Energy System for HVAC maintenance and repair in the amount of $85,000 annually. TOTH: Second. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Councilman? SKILLICORN: Madam Mayor, Director. What was the -- tell us about this outage. WELDY: Madam Mayor, councilmember. One of the three compressors that we have that operates the chiller went down due to some technical difficulties and quite honestly, its age. At that time the water temperature was allowed to creep up while we were working on a solution to try and bring one of the other two online and handle some of that balance. SKILLICORN: Are you going to need to replace that unit or -- WELDY: We rebuilt that unit, sir. SKILLICORN: Okay. So it's already been done? WELDY: Yes. It's rebuilding that one of three was approximately $16,000. And that came out of the operating fund. SKILLICORN: Okay. And then I don't see any bids on this? WELDY: This particular project is actually a cooperative use and the underlying agreement with this, I believe, is the State of Arizona. So the State of Arizona did the bidding process on this one. And we are just taking advantage of that process. SKILLICORN: Wouldn't it be our due diligence just to try someone else? WELLY: We certainly can. We have in the past and I think I explained earlier tonight the challenges that we faced with getting locked into that. But absolutely. There are several HVAC vendors out there that we can look at. Numerous cooperative agreements and/or release our own request for proposals. If that's the direction that the council would like to take, we can certainly explore it. SKILLICORN: Thank you very much. I don't feel comfortable with no -bid contracts. So Page 108 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING I'll be a no. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman? GRZYBOWSKI: Isn't that kind of the entire point of what I assume is an IGA? The state did that for us and we're getting the best deal based off of what the state was able to negotiate which prevents us from spending staff time sending -- trying to do this all ourselves. This is customary that towns and cities do, correct? WELDY: Mayor, vice mayor, the state conducted the competitive process. So the state released an invitation for bids and went through their entire process there. There was an elimination, a selection, and then obviously the board that represents the state elected this vendor through that process. So there was a bidding process that has already taken place. MAYOR DICKEY: And in general when we are able to piggyback on these huge other contracts, like we do with some larger cities that, in general, is a better deal for us overall than we could ever do on our own. Plus you mention in your background material that we had a vendor previously that was not satisfactory, correct? WELDY: Correct. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Any other comments? We have a motion and a second, I think. Right? Do we? Linda? Okay. Roll call, please? MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: No. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Grzybowski? Page 109 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thank you. Thanks Justin. You're still there. We're buying some cars. WELDY: Mayor, councilmembers. There are a few divisions underneath public works. One of those divisions is the street department. It is absolutely critical that the street department staff be able to respond around the clock regardless of whether it's nice out and a good day to go fishing, 11S degrees, or in the middle of a night during a rainstorm. **CLERK'S NOTE: Vice Mayor Grzybowski left the dais at 9:55 and returned at 9:57 p.m. WELDY: Part of that response requires that we have operable, reliable vehicles. There's been a considerable amount of discussion related to the vehicle replacement, including these two and several others. Rest assured I recognize this is a big dollar figure but I also recognize after having been here almost 17 years and oftentimes out in the middle of the night with these vehicles that it's critical. It's also important to note that we didn't just go out and select somebody for these vehicles. Utilizing the expertise of our procurement officer who is sitting right behind us here, we reviewed numerous state and county and city contracts. Based on that information we were not able to secure one from one of them but we found Peoria Ford had fleet pricing that was in alignment with what we are asking for, which is two street vehicles that are fleet body style. So they have the toolboxes and stuff already built into them. Having compared their pricing to other pricing in state and county contracts, this is a reasonable price with a reasonably short delivery time of six months or less. Which is a little bit unprecedented right now. There's other vehicles that we've waited over 12 months on. With that said, and I've had this discussion with the town manager, we know what we're asking for here. We know it's a big ask. But please note we've done our due diligence. We are aligned with the policy. We have certainly learned in the past when asked, and I Page 110 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING was uncomfortable with this, and if Mr. Miller were sitting there I would say this as well, we were asked to keep vehicles over so we could make same accommodations for things that we needed; we did. One of them was for parks. Shortly after agreeing to that, that vehicle broke down. The repair was $12,000 for obvious reasons. The town manager at that time, along with support from the director of that department, she's now the interim town manager, decided that it was best to take our loss on that, sell the vehicle. Another good example is the chief. And again, against my better judgment, we kept a vehicle for the fire department for them to simply have what they refer to as a snake call vehicle. This allows them to use something less than a pumper truck or an engine to report to the large number of snake calls and other nonemergency calls. This vehicle is incredible in regards to its condition. For those of you that don't know, when the studs are not working out or saving lives, they're polishing chrome. Take a look at their trucks and you can attest to that. However, when it came time to sell that vehicle we were barely able to recover $5,000. And it only had 80,000 miles on it and did I mention it was a bright red fire truck? And that took four tries at auction to even get to that dollar threshold. So I recognize the concerns and the challenges that we face. It should also be noted, and I know that we're getting late here. But I think this is important information. Staff met with several leasing agencies with Grady Miller and we listened to their pitch for different types of services. And I'm only going to relate to these two trucks right here. On average, the lease for this type of vehicle is between $1,000 per month along with a 5 to $7 ,000 signing agreement. And there's a little bit of a negotiation in there too, upfront. Then there are additional costs that are related to the maintenance. Either you have to provide maintenance for it that meets their schedule and it's critical. And then the last one, especially when it comes to commercial vehicles is the insurance. If our insurance carrier doesn't meet their requirements we have to pay for their insurance. Meeting all of those demand sand paying those monthly fees, at the end of your lease, which is either 12, 24, or 36 months, they usually don't go much further than that. You Page 111 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING have an option to purchase that vehicle. Which is also against our policy. We simply do not purchase vehicles that are used for obvious reasons. We don't know the history of that vehicle and whether or not it's going to cost a lot of money to keep it and maintain it at that time. I should note, and here comes the very uncomfortable part that of the, I believe, five we met with, three of them had done their due diligence and read our policy. And those three stated the following. You should eliminate your 10-year retention and move that back to seven years because your resale value will be substantially higher on a seven- year old vehicle with low mileage. With that said, each of the vehicles that are retired, we hve a state contract that we are part of that sells all of these vehicles at auction. And with the exception of the fire truck several of the other vehicles we have done surprisingly well simply because they have relatively low mileage, but they're still ten years old but they're a viable vehicle for somebody that needs a ten-year old used vehicle. A lot of information, I understand that. I'm certainly willing to answer any questions to the best of my ability. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilman? FRIEDEL: I have a couple of comments. First off, Justin, I'd like to recognize you for following our policy and our procedures because the policy, the way it's written is ten years or 100,000 miles on these vehicles. So I get that. I wonder though with the mileage on these vehicles, 60, 000 and 80,000, the 60,000 that's 6,000 miles a year over the ten-year period. I'd like to know if there would be consideration to bring this back in 12 months and keep these vehicles another year. That $125,000 is a lot of money. And I know you and the procurement officer did an excellent job getting pricing on these vehicles but I just feel that 60,000 and $80,000 on these pickups is not a lot of mileage especially around town. And I think it might be wise to consider bringing this back to us in 12 months or 18 months, whatever. Simply because I -- and also resale values right now of used vehicles are up as you mentioned before. The market's crazy right now for used vehicles. So again, I don't think it's a lot Page 112 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING of mileage on these two vehicles and they're around town. 6,000 miles a year I don't think is a lot on a vehicle. So my thought is bring this back to us. Let us digest this and bring it back to us in 12 or 18 months. That's just my thought on it. I don't know if anybody else wants to weigh in. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Councilwoman? MCMAHON: You said that you've already had maintenance on the vehicles, right? WELDY: Madam Mayor, councilmember, can you repeat that question, please? MCMAHON: The maintenance on these cars? WELDY: The town does the maintenance on these two vehicles, on them. MCMAHON: Let me rephrase it. Have there been problems with the cars? WELDY: Nothing substantial. There's minor issues but nothing substantial. So written into our policy and if you haven't had an opportunity to read it. In that policy it provides clear guidelines in regard to repair. If the repair of a vehicle exceeds a certain amount of the appraised used value at that time, we do not repair. We take our loss and we sell the vehicle at auction. I'm not aware of any substantial issues with these vehicles. They're simply at the end of their life per our policy. MCMAHON: Okay. And also you said that it's going to be six months for delivery, right? So given that I think that and knowing who you are and knowing the care you take and your safety precautions are over the top, I trust your judgment on this. So personally, I'm for it. And it's going to take at least six months you said to get these. And so I think that we got to move forward with it. Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman? KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Yeah, I appreciate the thoroughness of your presentation and giving us a deep dive in the process which, it sounds like it's been wow. On the other hand, I kind of concur with Councilmember Friedel an this one. You know we've been hit with a lot of bills. Like we were talking about earlier tonight, roads first and -- at least from the call to the public. And just depending on what the council thinks. I'm kind of inclined to go with Councilmember Friedel and give this a 12-month Page 113 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING resting period and then revisit that at that time. I think that, again, given the low mileage and the great maintenance that I'm sure the town is doing on these things. I think giving it one more year of service isn't too big of an ask. MAYOR DICKEY: So if it takes six months to come, then obviously it will if we wait a year to order it, we -- and again, this is sort of a ballpark time to try to figure out how long it would take to get the vehicle even then. You said that Councilman that the resale value of used cars is good now, so it might be a good time to sell these vehicles and get something like, a good back -- I can't even talk anymore. But money back. So the other thing is that when we came up with ten years or whatever the mileage was that there's a reason we do those things. It's an average. It's a proven model. It's what we do. And there's a reason that that's what it. And so these fit the criteria. And I think we should try to get what we can for them. It's going to take six months to get them and obviously, in a year they'll probably cost -- the new ones will probably cost more. So I'd like to do it now. That's the recommendation of our professional staff. MCMAHON: So I'd like to make a motion to approve the purchase of the two fleet vehicles from Peoria Ford in the amount of 125,157.38 and any associated budget transfers therewith. GRZYBOWSKI: Second. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you, vice mayor. Did you have something to say too? GRZYBOWSKI: I was just going to ditto everything you said. That the cars are -- used car prices are better now. If we wait six more months then it's six more months of wear. And in town driving doesn't make it helpful for the vehicle. It's actually more wear and tear on a car than driving it longer distances. And the price of the vehicles will go up if we wait another year. So I'm all for doing it now, getting it over with. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. I don't' think -- there weren't any speaker cards? I keep forgetting to ask that too. MENDENHALL: No. No, Mayor, there isn't. MAYOR DICKEY: You sure you guys don't want to talk? So we have a motion and a second. Could we get a roll call, please? Page 114 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: No. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: No. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: No. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? KALIVIANAKIS: No. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thanks, Justin. WELDY: You're welcome. MAYOR DICKEY: Let us know next time they need repairs or anything. Just keep us posted. MCMAHON: See you in six months, right. MAYOR DICKEY: Our last item is also Justin and it's the community center. Thank you. WELDY: Thank you, Madam Mayor. The next item is part of a multiyear repair to the community center. Obviously, we've been before this elected body numerous times and discussed the remediation and the issues that we have with water intrusion. In this particular instance to maintain some transparency and ensure that the town was getting what they wanted for the dollar threshold that they had, instead of selecting one of our job order contracts, which we have several. And at least one of them submitted on this. We opted to release a request for proposals. Part of that process comes back and it's reviewed by staff members, myself was one of them. There were three other ones. Going through that Page 115 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING process and looking at their proposals and their submittals, we make decisions based on what is best. In this particular case, and I can primarily only speak on my review of it. The lowest dollar threshold that was submitted for this work simply did not have enough information in the submittal. The page was basically blank and it included some exclusions that were clearly called out. Each and every other submittal we received had all of the line items that we had identified but also included separate sheets for exclusions. I think it's important to note that the highest number that was submitted as part of a proposal also included the largest number of exclusions. Which I found a little bit unusual. With that said, having done the reviews, and vetted it and looked at it, it is in my professional opinion and the opinion of the others that did the reviewing that Civil Elite is the most responsive submittal on this request for proposals for the community center improvements. Yes, they are a little bit higher but they included all of the necessary information and a very minimal amount of exclusions. As part of this I'm also asking for an owner's allowance. The reason for that is to be prepared for the unknown. If it's one thing that lessons and history has taught us, is when we begin to work on some of these buildings, the unknown could be a little big frightening and intimidating. With that, if you have any questions related to the submittal process or the selection process I will do my best to answer them. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman? KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Thank you. I also had a chance to review the four proposals that you did and I would just like to concur with your conclusion. The G-Con Incorporated's conclusion was shockingly sparse in its specificity and its exclusions were just standing out. And so I think it was a very wise thing to pass on what would, in a sense, have been the lower bid to go with somebody that we actually know what we're getting and it's all in writing. And if their proposal was this sloppy who knows how their work is going to be. So I Page 116 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING think that staff did an outstanding job. Thank you. WELDY: Thank you. Madam Mayor, councilmember. I think it's important to note that we have a job order contract with G-Con and they were primarily responsible for the renovations to the interior of the community center and have also been very responsive in the past to other projects within the town. This time it just — they didn't hit it. GRZYBOWSKI: I move to approve as written. TOTH: Second. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Can we get a roll call, please? MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: Yes. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thank you. Our next item is council discussion, direction to the town manager. You hear anything from call to the public or anything that you would like to bring back? Before we go to the future agenda items I wanted to mention some things that were asked to be on the future agenda item. So one was the follow up on emergency management. So we've had emergency response plans in place and some of the info is confidential as we had discussed but we will be having the presentation from Chief Ott on October 3rd. That's Page 117 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING what you had requested. The department of -- oh, this is for you Gerry. The department offers to do inspections. They go to the residents, and like, you had spoken about the kind of the fire safe -- FRIEDEL: Area? Yeah. MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah. So I think it's 30 feet but that will be all part of that too. So I believe anything that you have questions on will be on the 3rd. Any other items for future agendas? Councilman? FRIEDEL: I want to know if we have investigated somebody, another attorney or whoever, to help us negotiate the MCSO contract? ARNSON: So Rachael, if you want to speak to that, you can. But we have an executive session planned to discuss this item October 3rd. FRIEDEL: Okay. ARNSON: Next meeting. So that would certainly be one of the things that we can discuss during that time. If that's something you're interested in, I can certainly come prepared with some recommendations for that so that we're not starting from square one on October 3rd. But I think it would make a lot of sense to tie those two conversations together. FRIEDEL: I agree. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I would like to make a motion to approve a 12- month extension to the Park Place building permit. MAYOR DICKEY: Well, you can't make a motion -- this is for future agenda items suggestions. SKILLICORN: That's-- MCMAHON: You can't make a motion on something that's not on the -- SKILLICORN: According to the rules I need two seconds to get something on the agenda. So that's my -- ARNSON: Oh, you're asking for that item to appear? Page 118 of 119 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING SKILLICORN: Yes. ARNSON: Okay. I see. SKILLICORN: I'm sure there's two seconds. ARNSON: Yes. And we had intended to bring that on October 3rd. So yeah. SKILLICORN: Just wanted to make sure that it was public and -- ARNSON: Yes. SKILLICORN: -- yes. MAYOR DICKEY: Anything else? Thank you. We're adjourned. Page 119 of 119 Having no further business, Mayor Ginny Dickey adjourned the Regular Meeting of the Fountain Hills Town Council held on September 19, 2023, at 10:15 p.m. ATTEST AND PREPARED BY: nda G. endenhall, own Clerk CERTIFICATION TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS j Gi y DicI y, Mayor I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Regular Meeting held by the Town Council of Fountain Hills in the Town Hall Council Chambers on the 19'h day of September 2023. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present DATED this 17th Day of October 2023. da G. Mettdenhall, Town Clerk